CVE-2024-9488

Comments – wpDiscuz <= 7.6.24 - Authentication Bypass via WordPress.com OAuth provider

2024-10-24 00:00
wesley (wcraft)

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 7.6.25
Affected Plugin
Comments – wpDiscuz
Affected Version
<= 7.6.24
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-288 · Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel
CVE
CVE-2024-9488
View all Comments – wpDiscuz vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2024-9488 is a critical-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel vulnerability in the Comments WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 7.6.24. 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 7.6.25; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2024, reported by wesley (wcraft).

Vulnerability Overview

The Comments – wpDiscuz plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authentication bypass in all versions up to, and including, 7.6.24. This is due to insufficient verification on the user being returned by the social login token. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to log in as any existing user on the site, such as an administrator, if they have access to the email and the user does not have an already-existing account for the service returning the token.

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-288: Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel

Reaching this weakness in Comments <= 7.6.24 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Authentication bypass through an alternate path means the application has a second route to a protected action that skips the checks the primary route performs.

The protection on the main path becomes irrelevant, because the attacker simply uses the route that never asks. For Comments the fix is 7.6.25: builds <= 7.6.24 are affected, anything from 7.6.25 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 7.6.25, 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: Comments 7.6.25 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-9488https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b71706a7-e101-4d50-a2da-1aeeaf07cf4bhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-9488

Related records

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