CVE-2024-11733

WordPress Popular Posts <= 7.1.0 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary Shortcode Execution

2025-01-03 10:02

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 7.2.0
Affected Plugin: WP Popular Posts
Affected Version: <= 7.1.0
CVSS: 7.3High
Weakness type: CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
CVE: CVE-2024-11733

At a glance

CVE-2024-11733 is a high-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the WP Popular Posts WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 7.1.0. It carries a CVSS score of 7.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 7.2.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed January 2025, reported by mikemyers.

Vulnerability Overview

The The WordPress Popular Posts plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary shortcode execution in all versions up to, and including, 7.1.0. This is due to the software allowing users to execute an action that does not properly validate a value before running do_shortcode. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary shortcodes.

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.

CWE-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')

Reaching this weakness in WP Popular Posts <= 7.1.0 takes no account at all. Code injection means input from a request reaches a language construct that evaluates code, so the attacker's text is executed rather than treated as data.

The injected code runs with the web server's privileges, giving the attacker the same access to the database and filesystem as WordPress itself. For WP Popular Posts the fix is 7.2.0: builds <= 7.1.0 are affected, anything from 7.2.0 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 7.2.0, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: WP Popular Posts 7.2.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

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External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-11733 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/c38ac8d6-c6de-4be7-bf7b-198e085a0ad2 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-11733

Related records

CVSS Vector

7.3

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityLow
IntegrityLow
AvailabilityLow

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