CVE-2024-4898

InstaWP Connect – 1-click WP Staging & Migration <= 0.1.0.38 - Missing Authorization to Unauthenticated API setup/Arbitrary Options Update/Administrative User Creation

2024-06-11 21:44
Truoc Phan

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 0.1.0.39
Affected Plugin
InstaWP Connect – 1-click WP Staging & Migration
Affected Version
<= 0.1.0.38
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
CVE
CVE-2024-4898
View all InstaWP Connect – 1-click WP Staging & Migration vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2024-4898 is a critical-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the InstaWP Connect WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 0.1.0.38. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 0.1.0.39; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2024, reported by Truoc Phan.

Vulnerability Overview

The InstaWP Connect – 1-click WP Staging & Migration plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary option updates due to a missing authorization checks on the REST API calls in all versions up to, and including, 0.1.0.38. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to connect the site to InstaWP API, edit arbitrary site options and create administrator 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 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-862: Missing Authorization

Reaching this weakness in InstaWP Connect <= 0.1.0.38 takes no account at all. 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 InstaWP Connect the fix is 0.1.0.39: builds <= 0.1.0.38 are affected, anything from 0.1.0.39 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 0.1.0.39, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

This one needs no account at all, which puts it outside what login hardening can reach; WordSec's login security narrows the account-level paths around it, and the firewall is what inspects the request itself. None of that substitutes for the fix: InstaWP Connect 0.1.0.39 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-4898https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/92a00fb4-7b50-43fd-ac04-5d6e29336e9chttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-4898

Related records

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