CVE-2024-13653
Published: 12 February 2025
Description
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.
Security Summary
CVE-2024-13653 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in the ZoxPress - The All-In-One WordPress News Theme for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 2.12.0. The issue stems from a missing capability check on the 'backup_options' and 'restore_options' functions, enabling unauthorized modification of data. This flaw, classified under CWE-862 (Missing Authorization), carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H), indicating high severity due to its potential for significant impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Authenticated attackers with Subscriber-level access or higher can exploit this vulnerability remotely over the network with low complexity and no user interaction required. By calling the affected functions, they can update arbitrary WordPress options, such as changing the default user role for new registrations to administrator and enabling user registration. This allows attackers to create accounts with full administrative privileges on the vulnerable site.
Advisories from Wordfence provide detailed threat intelligence on the vulnerability, including exploitation details. The theme's page on ThemeForest serves as the primary source for the affected software. Security practitioners should consult these references—https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b4599c7f-5e5d-4571-97d9-54d6fd0c9c63?source=cve and https://themeforest.net/item/zoxpress-allinone-wordpress-news-theme/25586170—for patch information and mitigation guidance, as no specific fixes are detailed in the CVE description.
Details
- CWE(s)