CVE-2024-8268

Frontend Dashboard <= 2.2.4 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Arbitrary Function Call

2024-09-09 00:00
Lucio Sá

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.2.5
Affected Plugin
Frontend Dashboard
Affected Version
<= 2.2.4
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
CVE
CVE-2024-8268
View all Frontend Dashboard vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2024-8268 is a high-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the Frontend Dashboard WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.2.4. 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 2.2.5; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2024, reported by Lucio Sá.

Vulnerability Overview

The Frontend Dashboard plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized code execution due to insufficient filtering on callable methods/functions via the ajax_request() function in all versions up to, and including, 2.2.4. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to call arbitrary functions that can be leverage for privilege escalation by changing user's passwords.

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-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')

Frontend Dashboard <= 2.2.4 carries this weakness at ajax_request(), and reaching it takes an account at Subscriber level or above. 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 Frontend Dashboard the fix is 2.2.5: builds <= 2.2.4 are affected, anything from 2.2.5 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.2.5, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Subscriber access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: 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: Frontend Dashboard 2.2.5 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-8268https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/7d66694a-c99f-44f8-8004-1a47ad9f9250https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-8268

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C