CVE-2024-13697

Better Messages – Live Chat for WordPress, BuddyPress, PeepSo, Ultimate Member, BuddyBoss <= 2.7.4 - Unauthenticated Limited Server-Side Request Forgery in nice_links

2025-02-28 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.7.5
Affected Plugin: Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots
Affected Version: <= 2.7.4
CVSS: 4.8Medium
Weakness type: CWE-918 · Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
CVE: CVE-2024-13697

View all Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2024-13697 is a medium-severity Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in the Better Messages WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.7.4. It carries a CVSS score of 4.8 (reachable over the network). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.7.5; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2025, reported by Tim Coen.

Vulnerability Overview

The Better Messages – Live Chat for WordPress, BuddyPress, PeepSo, Ultimate Member, BuddyBoss plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Server-Side Request Forgery in all versions up to, and including, 2.7.4 via the 'nice_links'. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to make web requests to arbitrary locations originating from the web application and can be used to query and modify information from internal services. Successful exploitation requires the "Enable link previews" to be enabled (default).

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user.

CWE-918: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

Better Messages <= 2.7.4 carries this weakness at nice_links, and reaching it takes no account at all. Server-side request forgery means the application fetches a URL supplied by the caller, turning the server into a proxy for requests the attacker could not make directly.

The request originates from inside the hosting network, which is how these flaws reach cloud metadata endpoints, internal admin panels and services that trust local traffic. For Better Messages the fix is 2.7.5: builds <= 2.7.4 are affected, anything from 2.7.5 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.7.5, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Better Messages 2.7.5 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Firewall
Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-13697 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b67710d7-976b-4a65-bad3-091a97aceb00 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-13697

Related records

Same weakness class

7.4CVE-2022-41609: Better Messages <= 1.9.10.68 SSRFCVE-2022-41609

Other vulnerabilities in Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots

CVSS Vector

4.8

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityHigh
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityNone

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