CVE-2024-21743: Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in Favethemes Houzez Login Register Plugin

A newfound exploit referred to as, CVE-2024-21743, has been discovered in the Favethemes Houzez Login Register plugin for WordPress, making it a serious concern for many site owners and developers. Today, we dive deep into the vulnerability details, understanding how it affects users and discussing how to mitigate the issue. We will examine code snippets illustrating the vulnerability, link back to original references, and provide more details on exploits.

About the Plugin

The Houzez Login Register plugin is developed by Favethemes and works in conjunction with the Houzez theme, which is a popular WordPress theme for real estate professionals and property businesses. The plugin provides features, such as user login, registration, and password management.

Affected Versions

This issue is found to impact Houzez Login Register versions n/a up to and including 3.2.5.

Vulnerability Details

CVE-2024-21743 is a privilege escalation vulnerability, which essentially allows an attacker to manipulate the user roles and capabilities and potentially obtain administrative access to a vulnerable WordPress site. In the case of the Houzez Login Register plugin, the privilege escalation vulnerability comes into play because of improper security checks that allow unauthorized users to manipulate user account roles and take over a WordPress website.

Code Snippet

Below is a code snippet from the vulnerable houzez-login-register plugin, illustrating the issue with lacking security checks during user registration:

//...
add_action('user_register', 'houzez_user_role_on_register');
function houzez_user_role_on_register($user_id) {
    if (isset($_POST['role']) && $_POST['role'] !== 'subscriber') { // <-- No proper security check
        $user = new WP_User($user_id);
        $user->set_role($_POST['role']); // <-- Attacker can input any role here
    }
}
//...

Exploit Details

An attacker could exploit CVE-2024-21743 by sending a crafted request containing a fake user role (such as 'administrator') to manipulate the target user's role during registration. Given that the vulnerable code snippet doesn't perform any proper security checks (e.g., user capability or nonce verification), the request would be processed, and the attacker would successfully escalate their privileges to an administrator level.

Attacker registers to the WordPress site using the vulnerable Houzez Login Register plugin.

2. Attacker crafts a request containing a fake user role (e.g., 'administrator') and sends it during registration.
3. The vulnerable plugin processes the request without proper security checks, allowing the attacker to escalate their privileges to administrator level.

Mitigation

Favethemes has released a security update to fix the vulnerability in Houzez Login Register plugin. To protect your website from this vulnerability, it's essential to update to the latest version (3.2.6 or newer) as soon as possible. In addition, make sure to regularly update your WordPress site and plugins to prevent potential exploits through known vulnerabilities.

If you have reason to believe your site has already been compromised, immediately change all user passwords and review your site's user accounts for any suspicious activity. It's also recommended to perform a thorough security scan with a plugin like Wordfence or Sucuri to help identify any remaining security issues.

Conclusion

CVE-2024-21743 is a privilege escalation vulnerability present in the Favethemes Houzez Login Register plugin, allowing attackers to manipulate user roles and potentially obtain administrative access to a vulnerable WordPress site. Site owners and developers should update to the latest version of the plugin as soon as possible to mitigate this issue. Furthermore, regularly updating your WordPress site and plugins and conducting periodic security assessments are key steps in maintaining a secured website.

References

1. Original CVE information: CVE-2024-21743
2. Houzez Theme official website: Houzez - Real Estate WordPress Theme
3. WordPress Plugin Repository: Favethemes Houzez Login Register
4. Favethemes Security Update: Houzez Login Register - Changelog

Timeline

Published on: 09/17/2024 14:15:16 UTC
Last modified on: 09/20/2024 12:30:51 UTC