CVE-2021-24175

Plus Addons for Elementor Page Builder <= 4.1.6 - Authentication Bypass

2021-03-08 00:00
Seravo

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 4.1.7
Affected Plugin
The Plus Addons for Elementor Page Builder Pro
Affected Version
< 4.1.7
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-287 · Improper Authentication
CVE
CVE-2021-24175
View all The Plus Addons for Elementor Page Builder Pro vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-24175 is a critical-severity Improper Authentication vulnerability in the The Plus Addons for Elementor Page Builder Pro WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 4.1.7. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 4.1.7; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2021, reported by Seravo.

Vulnerability Overview

The Plus Addons for Elementor Page Builder WordPress plugin before 4.1.7 was being actively exploited to by malicious actors to bypass authentication, allowing unauthenticated users to log in as any user (including admin) by just providing the related username, as well as create accounts with arbitrary roles, such as admin. These issues can be exploited even if registration is disabled, and the Login widget is not active.

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

Reaching this weakness in The Plus Addons for Elementor Page Builder Pro < 4.1.7 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. For The Plus Addons for Elementor Page Builder Pro the fix is 4.1.7: builds < 4.1.7 are affected, anything from 4.1.7 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 4.1.7, 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: The Plus Addons for Elementor Page Builder Pro 4.1.7 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24175https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/cd3a7af1-0cae-4872-9e61-58e9a9e3eda5https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24175

Related records

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