Single-user-chat <= 0.5 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Limited Options Update
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- Single-user-chat
- Affected Version
<= 0.5- CVSS
- 8.1High
- Weakness type
- CWE-285 · Improper Authorization
- CVE
CVE-2024-13646
At a glance
CVE-2024-13646 is a high-severity Improper Authorization vulnerability in the Single-user-chat WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 0.5. It carries a CVSS score of 8.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Subscriber level or above. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed January 2025, reported by Colin Xu.
Vulnerability Overview
The Single-user-chat plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data that can lead to a denial of service due to insufficient validation on the 'single_user_chat_update_login' function in all versions up to, and including, 0.5. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to update option values to 'login' on the WordPress site. This may be leveraged to update an option that would create an error on the site and deny service to legitimate users or be used to set some values to true such as registration.
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 integrity, availability.
CWE-285: Improper Authorization
Single-user-chat <= 0.5 carries this weakness at single_user_chat_update_login, and reaching it takes an account at Subscriber level or above. Improper authorization means a permission check exists but does not cover the case being exercised, so a caller who is allowed to do one thing is allowed to do a neighbouring thing as well.
A lower-privileged account performs an action reserved for a higher one, which on a multi-author or membership site means an ordinary user reaching administrative behaviour. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for Single-user-chat yet, so installs running <= 0.5 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