CVE-2024-8121

The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit – WP Extended <= 3.0.8 - Missing Authorization to Admin Username Change

2024-09-03 00:00
Marco Wotschka

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.0.9
Affected Plugin
WP Extended – The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit
Affected Version
<= 3.0.8
CVSS
5.4Medium
Weakness type
CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
CVE
CVE-2024-8121
View all WP Extended – The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2024-8121 is a medium-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the WP Extended WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.0.8. It carries a CVSS score of 5.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). The root cause is a missing authorization check on a reachable function. The issue is fixed in version 3.0.9; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2024, reported by Marco Wotschka.

Vulnerability Overview

The The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit – WP Extended plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of user names due to a missing capability check on the wpext_change_admin_name() function in all versions up to, and including, 3.0.8. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to change an admin's username to a username of their liking as long as the default 'admin' was used.

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.

CWE-862: Missing Authorization

WP Extended <= 3.0.8 carries this weakness at admin, and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. A missing authorization check means a function is reachable by anyone who can reach the endpoint, because the code never asks whether the caller is allowed to perform the action.

Any user who can reach the endpoint gets to run an action reserved for higher-privileged roles, from reading protected data to changing settings or content. For WP Extended the fix is 3.0.9: builds <= 3.0.8 are affected, anything from 3.0.9 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.0.9, 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: WP Extended 3.0.9 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-8121https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/f3d08ac9-22f7-45f4-9896-05b90f5fce64https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-8121

Related records

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