CVE-2024-5468

WordPress Header Builder Plugin – Pearl <= 1.3.7 - Missing Authorization to Unauthenticated Arbitrary Site Options Deletion

2024-06-11 20:05
Lucio Sá

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.3.8
Affected Plugin
Pearl – Header Builder
Affected Version
<= 1.3.7
CVSS
6.5Medium
Weakness type
CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
CVE
CVE-2024-5468
View all Pearl – Header Builder vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2024-5468 is a medium-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the Pearl WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.3.7. It carries a CVSS score of 6.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.3.8; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed June 2024, reported by Lucio Sá.

Vulnerability Overview

The WordPress Header Builder Plugin – Pearl plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized site option deletion due to a missing validation and capability checks on the stm_hb_delete() function in all versions up to, and including, 1.3.7. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to delete arbitrary options that can be used to perform a denial of service attack on a site.

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.

CWE-862: Missing Authorization

Pearl <= 1.3.7 carries this weakness at stm_hb_delete(), and reaching it 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 Pearl the fix is 1.3.8: builds <= 1.3.7 are affected, anything from 1.3.8 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.3.8, 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: Pearl 1.3.8 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-5468https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/c2e770e0-1a39-4946-838b-4fd1f1dea1c8https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-5468

Related records

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