CVE-2024-10783

MainWP Child <= 5.3.3 - Missing Authorization to Unauthenticated Privilege Escalation

2024-12-12 00:00
Sean Murphy

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 5.3.4
Affected Plugin
MainWP Child – Securely Connects to the MainWP Dashboard to Manage Multiple Sites
Affected Version
<= 5.3.3
CVSS
8.1High
Weakness type
CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
CVE
CVE-2024-10783
View all MainWP Child – Securely Connects to the MainWP Dashboard to Manage Multiple Sites vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2024-10783 is a high-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the MainWP Child WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 5.3.3. 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 5.3.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2024, reported by Sean Murphy.

Vulnerability Overview

The MainWP Child – Securely Connects to the MainWP Dashboard to Manage Multiple Sites plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation due to a missing authorization checks on the register_site function in all versions up to, and including, 5.2 when a site is left in an unconfigured state. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to log in as an administrator on instances where MainWP Child is not yet connected to the MainWP Dashboard. IMPORTANT: this only affects sites who have MainWP Child installed and have not yet connected to the MainWP Dashboard, and do not have the unique security ID feature enabled. Sites already connected to the MainWP Dashboard plugin and do not have the unique security ID feature enabled, are NOT affected and not required to upgrade. Please note versions up to 5.3.3 contained a patch, though a bypass was discovered and not addressed until version 5.3.4.

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-862: Missing Authorization

Reaching this weakness in MainWP Child <= 5.3.3 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 MainWP Child the fix is 5.3.4: builds <= 5.3.3 are affected, anything from 5.3.4 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 5.3.4, 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: MainWP Child 5.3.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-10783https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/9156e536-a58e-4d78-b136-af8a9613ee23https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-10783

Related records

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