CVE-2021-24906

Protect WP Admin <= 3.6 - Unauthenticated Plugin Deactivation

2021-12-23 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 3.7
Affected Plugin: Protect WP Admin
Affected Version: <= 3.6
CVSS: 7.5High
Weakness type: CWE-863 · Incorrect Authorization
CVE: CVE-2021-24906

View all Protect WP Admin vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-24906 is a high-severity Incorrect Authorization vulnerability in the Protect WP Admin WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.6. It carries a CVSS score of 7.5 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high integrity impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.7; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed December 2021, reported by Krzysztof Zając.

Vulnerability Overview

The Protect WP Admin WordPress plugin before 3.7 does not check for authorisation in the lib/pwa-deactivate.php file, which could allow unauthenticated users to disable the plugin (and therefore the protection offered) via a crafted request

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 integrity.

CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization

Reaching this weakness in Protect WP Admin <= 3.6 takes no account at all. Incorrect authorization means a permission check exists but evaluates the wrong thing, so it passes for callers it was meant to stop.

The action runs for users the code intended to exclude, with the same effect as having no check at all. For Protect WP Admin the fix is 3.7: builds <= 3.6 are affected, anything from 3.7 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.7, 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: Protect WP Admin 3.7 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24906 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/2295b532-7833-4f5d-9778-de26390b04bd https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24906

Related records

Other vulnerabilities in Protect WP Admin

CVSS Vector

7.5

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityNone
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityNone

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