Industrial <= 1.7.8 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Arbitrary Options Update
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.7.9
- Affected Theme
- Industrial
- Affected Version
<= 1.7.8- CVSS
- 8.8High
- Weakness type
- CWE-269 · Improper Privilege Management
- CVE
CVE-2024-13376
At a glance
CVE-2024-13376 is a high-severity Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in the Industrial WordPress theme, affecting versions <= 1.7.8. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 1.7.9; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2025, reported by Tonn.
Vulnerability Overview
The Industrial theme for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data that can lead to privilege escalation due to a missing capability check on the _ajax_get_total_content_import_items() function in all versions up to, and including, 1.7.8. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to update arbitrary options on the WordPress site. This can be leveraged to update the default role for registration to administrator and enable user registration for attackers to gain administrative user access to a vulnerable site.
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-269: Improper Privilege Management
Industrial <= 1.7.8 carries this weakness at _ajax_get_total_content_import_items(), and reaching it takes an account at Subscriber level or above. Improper privilege management means the code lets an account end up with capabilities its role should not have.
It converts a low-privileged account into an administrative one, which makes every other restriction on the site irrelevant. For Industrial the fix is 1.7.9: builds <= 1.7.8 are affected, anything from 1.7.9 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.7.9, 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: Industrial 1.7.9 closes this, and updating the theme is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
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