Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.4.9
- Affected Plugin
- Email Log
- Affected Version
<= 2.4.8- CVSS
- 8.1High
- Weakness type
- CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
- CVE
CVE-2024-0867
At a glance
CVE-2024-0867 is a high-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the Email Log WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.4.8. It carries a CVSS score of 8.1 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.4.9; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed May 2024, reported by Sean Murphy.
Vulnerability Overview
The Email Log plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Unauthenticated Hook Injection in all versions up to, and including, 2.4.8 via the check_nonce function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to execute actions with hooks in WordPress under certain circumstances. The action the attacker wishes to execute needs to have a nonce check, and the nonce needs to be known to the attacker. Furthermore, the absence of a capability check is a requirement.
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. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
Reaching this weakness in Email Log <= 2.4.8 takes no account at all. Code injection means input from a request reaches a language construct that evaluates code, so the attacker's text is executed rather than treated as data.
The injected code runs with the web server's privileges, giving the attacker the same access to the database and filesystem as WordPress itself. For Email Log the fix is 2.4.9: builds <= 2.4.8 are affected, anything from 2.4.9 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.4.9, 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. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Email Log 2.4.9 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Scanner
- Login Security
External References
Related records
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