CVE-2023-51478
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to bypass authentication mechanisms in the Build App Online WordPress plugin, enabling account takeover and privilege escalation. It affects all WordPress sites running vulnerable versions of this plugin, potentially compromising administrator accounts and site control.
💻 Affected Systems
- Build App Online WordPress Plugin
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete site compromise with administrative access, data theft, malware injection, defacement, and potential lateral movement to other systems.
Likely Case
Unauthenticated attackers gain administrative privileges, modify site content, steal sensitive data, and install backdoors.
If Mitigated
Limited impact due to network segmentation, strong authentication controls, and monitoring that detects unauthorized access attempts.
🎯 Exploit Status
Public exploit details available on Patchstack. Simple HTTP requests can trigger the vulnerability without authentication.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 1.0.20 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://patchstack.com/database/vulnerability/build-app-online/wordpress-build-app-online-plugin-1-0-19-unauthenticated-account-takeover-vulnerability
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins. 3. Find 'Build App Online' plugin. 4. Click 'Update Now' if update available. 5. If no update available, deactivate and remove plugin immediately.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Immediate Plugin Deactivation
allTemporarily disable the vulnerable plugin to prevent exploitation
wp plugin deactivate build-app-online
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Immediately deactivate and remove the Build App Online plugin from all WordPress installations
- Implement web application firewall rules to block requests targeting the vulnerable plugin endpoints
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin panel → Plugins → Installed Plugins for 'Build App Online' version 1.0.19 or earlierCheck Version:
wp plugin get build-app-online --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Verify plugin version is 1.0.20 or later in WordPress admin, or confirm plugin is completely removed📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual authentication attempts without valid credentials
- Administrative actions from unexpected IP addresses
- Plugin activation/deactivation logs for Build App Online
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests to /wp-content/plugins/build-app-online/ with authentication bypass patterns
- Unusual POST requests to plugin-specific endpoints
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress" AND (plugin="build-app-online" OR uri_path="/wp-content/plugins/build-app-online/") AND (http_method="POST" OR status="200" AND user_agent NOT IN expected_browsers)🔗 References
- https://patchstack.com/database/vulnerability/build-app-online/wordpress-build-app-online-plugin-1-0-19-unauthenticated-account-takeover-vulnerability?_s_id=cve
- https://patchstack.com/database/vulnerability/build-app-online/wordpress-build-app-online-plugin-1-0-19-unauthenticated-account-takeover-vulnerability?_s_id=cve
