Contact List – Easy Business Directory, Staff Directory and Address Book Plugin <= 2.9.87 - Missing Authorization to Notice Dismissal
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.9.88
- Affected Plugin
- Contact List – Online Staff Directory & Address Book
- Affected Version
<= 2.9.87- CVSS
- 5.3Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
- CVE
CVE-2024-34821
At a glance
CVE-2024-34821 is a medium-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the Contact List WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.9.87. It carries a CVSS score of 5.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.9.88; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2024, reported by Dhabaleshwar Das.
Vulnerability Overview
The Contact List – Easy Business Directory, Staff Directory and Address Book Plugin plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data due to a missing capability check on the process_notifications() function in versions up to, and including, 2.9.87. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to dismiss notices.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user.
CWE-862: Missing Authorization
Contact List <= 2.9.87 carries this weakness at process_notifications(), and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. A missing authorization check means a function is reachable by anyone who can reach the endpoint, because the code never asks whether the caller is allowed to perform the action.
Any user who can reach the endpoint gets to run an action reserved for higher-privileged roles, from reading protected data to changing settings or content. For Contact List the fix is 2.9.88: builds <= 2.9.87 are affected, anything from 2.9.88 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.9.88, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: Contact List 2.9.88 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
Other vulnerabilities in Contact List – Online Staff Directory & Address Book
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