CVE-2024-54278

Executive Summary

CVE-2024-54278 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability in the WordPress plugin News Ticker for Elementor by Plugin Devs. This flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to access functionality that should be constrained by Access Control Lists (ACLs). The vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 2.1.3. With a CVSS score of 4.3 (Medium), the primary impact is unauthorized access to plugin features, potentially leading to information disclosure or unintended data exposure. No public proof-of-concept (PoC) or patch details are currently available, and the EPSS score is 0.0%, indicating low exploitation likelihood at this time.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability resides in a WordPress plugin distributed via the official WordPress plugin repository. Users who installed the plugin from the WordPress dashboard or via direct download are affected. No package manager (NPM, PyPI, Go, Ruby) is involved.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• Attack Vector (AV): Network (N) – Exploitable remotely.
• Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L) – No special conditions required.
• Privileges Required (PR): None (N) – No authentication needed.
• User Interaction (UI): None (N) – No user action required.
• Scope (S): Unchanged (U) – Impact confined to the vulnerable component.
• Confidentiality (C): Low (L) – Limited information disclosure possible.
• Integrity (I): None (N) – No data modification.
• Availability (A): None (N) – No denial of service.

Threat Level: Medium. The vulnerability allows unauthorized access to plugin functionality but does not directly lead to data modification or system compromise.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability stems from missing authorization checks in the news-ticker-for-elementor plugin. Specifically, the plugin fails to validate user permissions before allowing access to certain AJAX actions or REST endpoints. An unauthenticated attacker can send crafted HTTP requests to trigger these endpoints, bypassing the intended ACLs.

The affected functionality likely includes:

• Retrieving ticker settings or configuration data.
• Accessing stored news items or feeds.
• Triggering administrative actions without proper capability checks.

The plugin uses WordPress AJAX hooks (e.g., wp_ajax_* and wp_ajax_nopriv_*) but does not enforce current_user_can() checks for sensitive operations. This allows any visitor to invoke actions that should be restricted to administrators or editors.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no patch is available, the vulnerable code pattern is described generically.

Vulnerable Code (hypothetical):

add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_news_ticker_get_data', 'news_ticker_get_data');
function news_ticker_get_data() {
    // No capability check
    $data = get_option('news_ticker_settings');
    wp_send_json_success($data);
}

Patched Code (expected):

add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_news_ticker_get_data', 'news_ticker_get_data');
function news_ticker_get_data() {
    if (!current_user_can('manage_options')) {
        wp_die('Unauthorized', 403);
    }
    $data = get_option('news_ticker_settings');
    wp_send_json_success($data);
}

The patch adds a current_user_can() check to ensure only users with the manage_options capability can access the endpoint.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team

1. Identify vulnerable endpoints: Use a WordPress scanner (e.g., WPScan) to detect the plugin version.
2. Craft exploit request: Send an unauthenticated GET/POST request to the vulnerable AJAX action.

   curl -X POST "http://target/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" \
        -d "action=news_ticker_get_data"
   

3. Extract data: The response may contain sensitive configuration or content.

Blue Team

1. Monitor for anomalous AJAX requests: Look for admin-ajax.php requests with action parameters related to news_ticker.
2. Check access logs: Identify requests from unauthenticated users to plugin-specific endpoints.
3. Deploy WAF rules: Block requests to admin-ajax.php with suspicious action names.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network:
  • HTTP requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=news_ticker_* parameters.
  • Unauthenticated POST requests to plugin-specific REST endpoints.
• File:
  • Presence of plugin files in /wp-content/plugins/news-ticker-for-elementor/ (version <= 2.1.3).
• Log:
  • Repeated 200 responses to admin-ajax.php from unknown IPs without authentication cookies.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2024_54278_NewsTicker_Elementor {
    meta:
        description = "Detects vulnerable News Ticker for Elementor plugin files"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        cve = "CVE-2024-54278"
    strings:
        $vuln_func = "wp_ajax_nopriv_news_ticker" nocase
        $no_check = "current_user_can" nocase
    condition:
        $vuln_func and not $no_check
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2024-54278 - Unauthenticated AJAX Access to News Ticker
id: 8a3f7c2e-1d4b-4f6a-9c8e-5b2a1d3f7e0c
status: experimental
description: Detects unauthenticated requests to vulnerable News Ticker AJAX endpoints
author: Valters IT
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'POST'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'admin-ajax.php'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'action=news_ticker_'
        sc-status: 200
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate admin requests (check for authentication cookies)
level: medium

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2024-54278 - News Ticker AJAX Exploit Attempt"; flow:to_server; content:"POST"; http_method; content:"admin-ajax.php"; http_uri; content:"action=news_ticker_"; http_client_body; classtype:attempted-recon; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

1. Immediate: Disable the News Ticker for Elementor plugin until a patch is released.
2. Short-term: Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block unauthenticated requests to admin-ajax.php with action parameters starting with news_ticker_.
3. Long-term: Monitor the plugin vendor for updates. Apply the official patch as soon as it becomes available.
4. Alternative: Replace the plugin with a similar, actively maintained alternative that includes proper authorization checks.

Valters IT
Securing WordPress ecosystems one CVE at a time.