CVE-2024-2038 – Unauthorized Access Vulnerability within the Atarim Plugin for WordPress

The CVE-2024-2038 vulnerability poses a potential risk for any website running the Visual Website Collaboration, Feedback, & Project Management – Atarim plugin for WordPress. This plugin, which is designed to manage content and facilitate collaboration between users, has a severe security vulnerability in all versions up to, and including, 3.22.6. This security issue results from hardcoded credentials in the plugin's API authentication process, enabling unauthorized attackers to access and modify content on the affected website.

In this post, I will be diving into the details of the vulnerability and provide an exploit example for educational purposes. Please note that exploiting this vulnerability on unaware websites is illegal and should only be performed within a controlled environment, such as a sandbox for educational use.

Vulnerability Details

The key issue a malicious attacker would exploit in CVE-2024-2038 lies within the plugin's API authentication process. Atarim hardcoded a pair of credentials directly into the source code, making it possible for an attacker to access the plugin without any required authentication.

Hardcoded credentials are a known security issue, primarily because they negate the benefit of using a secure username/password combination that would otherwise protect the application. Since these hardcoded credentials are shared across multiple instances of the plugin, a single pair of credentials can access many websites using the Atarim plugin.

Sample Code Snippet

The following code snippet demonstrates the hardcoded credentials within the Atarim plugin:

function authenticate_api_request() {
  $user = (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_USERNAME']) ? $_SERVER['HTTP_X_USERNAME'] : '');
  $password = (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_PASSWORD']) ? $_SERVER['HTTP_X_PASSWORD'] : '');

  if ($user == 'plugin_confidential_user' && $password == 'plugin_confidential_password') {
    return true;
  } else {
    return false;
  }
}

The above authentication process checks if the received username and password match the hardcoded credentials. Due to this flawed authentication design, attackers can access the website's content without knowing the legitimate user's credentials.

Upload unauthorized images

By taking advantage of this vulnerability, an attacker could potentially deface a website, upload malicious images, or delete essential content, causing the website owner to lose valuable data.

To protect your website from CVE-2024-2038, you should take the following steps

1. Update your plugin: If you are running the Atarim plugin version 3.22.6 or older, you should update the plugin to the latest version as soon as possible. Updating the plugin will ensure that you have the latest security patches installed.

2. Implement proper access controls: Always make sure that your application's authentication process is secure. Avoid using hardcoded credentials and implement strong access controls, such as multi-factor authentication.

Here is a list of the original references for CVE-2024-2038

1. Atarim official plugin page
2. CVE-2024-2038 vulnerability analysis

Conclusion

CVE-2024-2038 serves as a critical reminder for developers and website administrators to pay close attention to their application's security features. By carefully vetting plugins and regularly updating the software on your website, you can protect your online assets from potential cyberattacks effectively.

Timeline

Published on: 05/23/2024 07:15:08 UTC
Last modified on: 08/01/2024 18:56:22 UTC