CVE-2023-26540

Houzez <= 2.7.1 - Privilege Escalation

2023-02-27 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 2.7.2
Affected Theme: Houzez
Affected Version: <= 2.7.1
CVSS: 9.8Critical
Weakness type: CWE-266 · Incorrect Privilege Assignment
CVE: CVE-2023-26540

At a glance

CVE-2023-26540 is a critical-severity Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability in the Houzez WordPress theme, affecting versions <= 2.7.1. 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 2.7.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2023, reported by Dave Jong.

Vulnerability Overview

The Houzez theme for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in versions up to, and including, 2.7.1. This is due to improper assignment of privileges on user management/registration that allows users to supply their own role via the houzez_change_user_role and houzez_register_user_with_membership AJAX actions. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to register as administrators on vulnerable sites.

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-266: Incorrect Privilege Assignment

A product incorrectly assigns a privilege to a particular actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.

Remediation

Update to version 2.7.2, 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: Houzez 2.7.2 closes this, and updating the theme is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-26540 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/0578f4d1-5953-4fbe-8bc3-0569bee57a1a https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-26540

Related records

Same weakness class

8.8CVE-2024-22303: Houzez <= 3.2.4 Privilege EscalationCVE-2024-22303

Other vulnerabilities in Houzez

CVSS Vector

9.8

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

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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