CVE-2021-24193

Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics <= 2.11 - Missing Authorization to Arbitrary Plugin Installation/Activation

2021-04-22 00:00
Bugbang

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2.12
Affected Plugin
Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics
Affected Version
<= 2.11
CVSS
8.8High
Weakness type
CWE-285 · Improper Authorization
CVE
CVE-2021-24193
View all Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2021-24193 is a high-severity Improper Authorization vulnerability in the Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.11. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). The root cause is a missing authorization check on a reachable function. The issue is fixed in version 2.12; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2021, reported by Bugbang.

Vulnerability Overview

Low privileged users can use the AJAX action 'cp_plugins_do_button_job_later_callback' in the Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics WordPress plugin before 2.12, to install any plugin (including a specific version) from the WordPress repository, as well as activate arbitrary plugin from then blog, which helps attackers install vulnerable plugins and could lead to more critical vulnerabilities like RCE.

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-285: Improper Authorization

Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics <= 2.11 carries this weakness at cp_plugins_do_button_job_later_callback, and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. 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. For Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics the fix is 2.12: builds <= 2.11 are affected, anything from 2.12 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2.12, 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: Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics 2.12 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24193https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/33086968-359f-46d7-825e-29c4e4449899https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24193

Related records

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