CVE-2024-12171

ELEX WordPress HelpDesk & Customer Ticketing System <= 3.2.6 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation

2025-01-31 00:00
Thanh Nam Tran

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.2.7
Affected Plugin
ELEX WordPress HelpDesk & Customer Ticketing System
Affected Version
<= 3.2.6
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
CVE
CVE-2024-12171
View all ELEX WordPress HelpDesk & Customer Ticketing System vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2024-12171 is a high-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the ELEX WordPress HelpDesk & Customer Ticketing System WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.2.6. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 3.2.7; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2025, reported by Thanh Nam Tran.

Vulnerability Overview

The ELEX WordPress HelpDesk & Customer Ticketing System plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation due to a missing capability check on the 'eh_crm_agent_add_user' AJAX action in all versions up to, and including, 3.2.6. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to create new administrative user accounts.

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 interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-862: Missing Authorization

ELEX WordPress HelpDesk & Customer Ticketing System <= 3.2.6 carries this weakness at eh_crm_agent_add_user, and reaching it takes an account at Subscriber level or above. 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 ELEX WordPress HelpDesk & Customer Ticketing System the fix is 3.2.7: builds <= 3.2.6 are affected, anything from 3.2.7 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.2.7, 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: ELEX WordPress HelpDesk & Customer Ticketing System 3.2.7 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-12171https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/cbcd978b-e81f-4c39-b2f7-adc948d21b1bhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-12171

Related records

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