ZoxPress - The All-In-One WordPress News Theme <= 2.12.0 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Arbitrary Options Update
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.12.1
- Affected Theme
- ZoxPress - The All-In-One WordPress News Theme
- Affected Version
<= 2.12.0- CVSS
- 8.8High
- Weakness type
- CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
- CVE
CVE-2024-13653
At a glance
CVE-2024-13653 is a high-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the ZoxPress - The All-In-One WordPress News Theme WordPress theme, affecting versions <= 2.12.0. 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 2.12.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2025, reported by Lucio Sá.
Vulnerability Overview
The ZoxPress - The All-In-One WordPress News Theme theme for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification of data that can lead to privilege escalation due to a missing capability check on the 'backup_options' and 'restore_options' functions in all versions up to, and including, 2.12.0. 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-862: Missing Authorization
ZoxPress - The All-In-One WordPress News Theme <= 2.12.0 carries this weakness at backup_options, and reaching it takes an account at Subscriber level or above. 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 ZoxPress - The All-In-One WordPress News Theme the fix is 2.12.1: builds <= 2.12.0 are affected, anything from 2.12.1 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.12.1, 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: ZoxPress - The All-In-One WordPress News Theme 2.12.1 closes this, and updating the theme is the step that ends it.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
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