Sign In With Google <= 1.8.0 - Authentication Bypass in authenticate_user
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- Sign In With Google
- Affected Version
<= 1.8.0- CVSS
- 9.8Critical
- Weakness type
- CWE-287 · Improper Authentication
- CVE
CVE-2024-11015
At a glance
CVE-2024-11015 is a critical-severity Improper Authentication vulnerability in the Sign In With Google WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.8.0. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed December 2024, reported by shaman0x01.
Vulnerability Overview
The Sign In With Google plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authentication bypass in all versions up to, and including, 1.8.0. This is due to the 'authenticate_user' user function not implementing sufficient null value checks when setting the access token and user information. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to log in as the first user who has signed in using Google OAuth, which could be the site 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 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-287: Improper Authentication
Sign In With Google <= 1.8.0 carries this weakness at authenticate_user, and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Improper authentication means the mechanism that proves who a caller is can be satisfied without the secret it was supposed to require.
An attacker authenticates as another user — administrators included — without ever knowing a password, so password policies and login rate limits never come into play. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for Sign In With Google yet, so installs running <= 1.8.0 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
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. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C