Index Now <= 2.6.3 - Cross-Site Request Forgery via reset_form
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.6.4
- Affected Version
<= 2.6.3- CVSS
- 7.1High
- Weakness type
- CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
- CVE
CVE-2024-0428
At a glance
CVE-2024-0428 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the CrawlWP SEO WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.6.3. It carries a CVSS score of 7.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.6.4; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2024, reported by Francesco Carlucci.
Vulnerability Overview
The Index Now plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in all versions up to, and including, 2.6.3. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on the 'reset_form' function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to delete arbitrary site options via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link.
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. A successful exploit has high impact on availability.
CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
CrawlWP SEO <= 2.6.3 carries this weakness at reset_form, and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site request forgery abuses the fact that browsers attach a victim's cookies to any request, so a state-changing action that only checks who you are, not whether you meant to act, can be triggered from another site.
An attacker who gets a logged-in user to load a crafted page can perform that action as them, with the impact scaling to whatever the victim's role is allowed to do. For CrawlWP SEO the fix is 2.6.4: builds <= 2.6.3 are affected, anything from 2.6.4 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.6.4, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to CrawlWP SEO: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: CrawlWP SEO 2.6.4 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
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