CVE-2024-8428

ForumWP – Forum & Discussion Board Plugin <= 2.0.2 - Insecure Direct Object Reference to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation via Account Takeover

2024-09-06 01:21
wesley (wcraft)

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.1.0
Affected Plugin
ForumWP – Forum & Discussion Board
Affected Version
<= 2.0.2
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-639 · Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key
CVE
CVE-2024-8428
View all ForumWP – Forum & Discussion Board vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2024-8428 is a high-severity Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerability in the ForumWP WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.0.2. 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 2.1.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2024, reported by wesley (wcraft).

Vulnerability Overview

The ForumWP – Forum & Discussion Board Plugin plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Insecure Direct Object Reference in all versions up to, and including, 2.0.2 via the submit_form_handler due to missing validation on the 'user_id' user controlled key. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to change the email address of administrative user accounts which can then be leveraged to reset the administrative users password and gain access to their account.

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-639: Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key

ForumWP <= 2.0.2 carries this weakness at user_id, and reaching it takes an account at Subscriber level or above. Authorization bypass through a user-controlled key, often called insecure direct object reference, means the application looks up a record by an identifier from the request without checking that the caller owns it.

Changing a number in the request is enough to read or modify other users' records, which on commerce and membership sites means customer data. For ForumWP the fix is 2.1.0: builds <= 2.0.2 are affected, anything from 2.1.0 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.1.0, 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: ForumWP 2.1.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-8428https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b5818587-0a52-4734-8f75-263b4ab5020ehttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-8428

Related records

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