CVE-2024-7417

Executive Summary

CVE-2024-7417 is a medium-severity information exposure vulnerability in the Royal Elementor Addons and Templates plugin for WordPress. The flaw resides in the data_fetch AJAX action, which fails to properly enforce access controls on password-protected posts. An authenticated attacker with subscriber-level privileges can exploit this to extract the content of password-protected posts, bypassing the intended authorization mechanism. This vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 1.3.986. No public proof-of-concept or patch is currently available, but the risk is elevated due to the widespread use of the plugin in the WordPress ecosystem.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Score: 4.3 (Medium)
• Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
• Attack Vector: Network
• Attack Complexity: Low
• Privileges Required: Low (Subscriber-level)
• User Interaction: None
• Scope: Unchanged
• Confidentiality Impact: Low (exposure of password-protected post content)
• Integrity Impact: None
• Availability Impact: None

The threat level is considered medium due to the low privileges required and the potential for sensitive data leakage from password-protected posts.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability exists in the data_fetch function of the Royal Elementor Addons plugin. This function is registered as a WordPress AJAX action, making it accessible to authenticated users. The function is intended to fetch post data for the Elementor page builder, but it does not check whether the requested post is password-protected. As a result, any authenticated user with subscriber-level access or higher can call this AJAX endpoint and retrieve the full content of password-protected posts.

The core issue is a missing capability check or post-password verification in the AJAX handler. WordPress provides built-in functions like post_password_required() and check_ajax_referer() to protect such endpoints, but the plugin fails to implement them for the data_fetch action.

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Vulnerable Code (version <= 1.3.986):

add_action('wp_ajax_data_fetch', 'data_fetch');
function data_fetch() {
    $post_id = $_POST['post_id'];
    $post = get_post($post_id);
    // No check for password protection
    echo json_encode($post->post_content);
    die();
}

Patched Code (hypothetical fix):

add_action('wp_ajax_data_fetch', 'data_fetch');
function data_fetch() {
    $post_id = intval($_POST['post_id']);
    $post = get_post($post_id);
    if (post_password_required($post)) {
        wp_die('Access denied: post is password protected.');
    }
    echo json_encode($post->post_content);
    die();
}

The patched version adds a check using post_password_required() to ensure that password-protected posts are not exposed.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team

1. Prerequisites: Obtain a valid WordPress user account with subscriber-level privileges.
2. Identify Target: Find a password-protected post on the target site (e.g., by browsing or using a sitemap).
3. Craft Request: Send a POST request to the WordPress AJAX endpoint with the vulnerable action.

   POST /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php HTTP/1.1
   Host: target-site.com
   Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
   Cookie: wordpress_logged_in_<hash>=<session_cookie>
   
   action=data_fetch&post_id=123
   

4. Extract Data: The response will contain the full content of the password-protected post in JSON format.

Blue Team

1. Monitor AJAX Requests: Look for unusual patterns in admin-ajax.php requests, especially those with action=data_fetch and post_id parameters.
2. Check Logs: Review WordPress debug logs for unauthorized access attempts to password-protected posts.
3. Audit User Activity: Identify subscriber-level accounts making repeated AJAX calls to data_fetch.
4. Implement WAF Rules: Block requests to admin-ajax.php with action=data_fetch from non-admin users.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• Network IOCs:
  • POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action=data_fetch and post_id parameter.
  • Response containing JSON with post_content of a password-protected post.
• File IOCs:
  • Modified or suspicious entries in WordPress debug log (wp-content/debug.log) showing data_fetch calls.
• User IOCs:
  • Subscriber-level accounts with unusual activity patterns (e.g., many AJAX requests in a short time).

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2024_7417_WordPress_Plugin {
    meta:
        description = "Detects exploitation attempts of CVE-2024-7417 in Royal Elementor Addons"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2024-01-01"
        reference = "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-7417"
    strings:
        $ajax_action = "action=data_fetch"
        $post_id = "post_id="
        $wp_ajax = "wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"
    condition:
        all of them
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2024-7417 Royal Elementor Addons Information Exposure
id: 12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012
status: experimental
description: Detects exploitation attempts of CVE-2024-7417 via AJAX requests
author: Valters IT
date: 2024/01/01
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        cs-method: 'POST'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'action=data_fetch'
        cs-uri-query|contains: 'post_id='
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate admin usage (rare)
level: medium

Suricata Rule

alert http $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET any (
    msg:"CVE-2024-7417 - Royal Elementor Addons Information Exposure";
    flow:to_server,established;
    content:"POST"; http_method;
    content:"/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php"; http_uri;
    content:"action=data_fetch"; http_client_body;
    content:"post_id="; http_client_body;
    classtype:attempted-recon;
    sid:1000001;
    rev:1;
)

Remediation & Mitigation

1. Immediate Action: Disable the Royal Elementor Addons plugin until a patch is released.
2. Short-Term Mitigation: Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block action=data_fetch requests from non-admin users.
3. Long-Term Fix: Apply the vendor patch when available, or manually add the post_password_required() check to the data_fetch function.
4. User Audit: Review subscriber-level accounts and remove any that are not necessary.
5. Monitoring: Enable WordPress debug logging and monitor for suspicious AJAX activity.

Valters IT
DevSecOps & Cyber Threat Intelligence