CVE-2024-8253

Post Grid and Gutenberg Blocks 2.2.87 - 2.2.90 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Privilege Escalation

2024-09-10 14:51

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.2.91
Affected Plugin: Post Grid
Affected Version: 2.2.87 – 2.2.90
CVSS: 8.8High
Weakness type: CWE-266 · Incorrect Privilege Assignment
CVE: CVE-2024-8253

At a glance

CVE-2024-8253 is a high-severity Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability in the Post Grid WordPress plugin, affecting versions 2.2.87 – 2.2.90. 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 2.2.91; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2024, reported by wesley (wcraft).

Vulnerability Overview

The Post Grid and Gutenberg Blocks plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in all versions 2.2.87 to 2.2.90. This is due to the plugin not properly restricting what user meta values can be updated and ensuring a form is active. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to update their user meta to become an administrator.

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-266: Incorrect Privilege Assignment

A product incorrectly assigns a privilege to a particular actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.

Remediation

Update to version 2.2.91, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: Post Grid 2.2.91 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-8253 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/f5f18cae-b7f8-4afd-adfa-c616c63f9419 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-8253

Related records

CVSS Vector

8.8

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredLow
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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