CVE-2024-11297
📋 TL;DR
The Page Restriction WordPress plugin (versions up to 1.3.6) allows unauthenticated attackers to access sensitive content from posts/pages restricted to administrators via WordPress core search. This affects all WordPress sites using the vulnerable plugin version.
💻 Affected Systems
- Page Restriction WordPress – Protect WP Pages/Post plugin
📦 What is this software?
Page Restriction by Miniorange
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers extract administrator-only content including credentials, internal communications, or sensitive business data, leading to privilege escalation or data breaches.
Likely Case
Unauthenticated users discover restricted content through search results, exposing confidential information intended for administrators only.
If Mitigated
With proper access controls and monitoring, exposure is limited to non-critical information with quick detection of unauthorized access attempts.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires only standard WordPress search functionality; no special tools needed.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 1.3.7 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://wordpress.org/plugins/page-and-post-restriction/
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins. 3. Find 'Page Restriction' plugin. 4. Click 'Update Now' if available. 5. Alternatively, download version 1.3.7+ from WordPress repository and manually update.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable WordPress Search
allTemporarily disable WordPress core search functionality to prevent exploitation.
Add 'add_action('init', function() { remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_oembed_add_discovery_links'); });' to theme functions.php or use search disable plugin
Deactivate Vulnerable Plugin
linuxTemporarily deactivate the Page Restriction plugin until patched.
wp plugin deactivate page-and-post-restriction
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to block suspicious search queries targeting restricted content.
- Monitor WordPress search logs for unusual patterns and restrict search functionality to authenticated users only.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check plugin version in WordPress admin under Plugins > Installed Plugins. If version is 1.3.6 or lower, the site is vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin get page-and-post-restriction --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm plugin version is 1.3.7 or higher. Test search functionality with unauthenticated user to ensure restricted content doesn't appear in results.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual search query patterns in WordPress logs
- Multiple search requests from single IP addresses for restricted terms
Network Indicators:
- HTTP GET requests to /?s= containing sensitive keywords from unauthenticated sources
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND "?s=" AND ("admin" OR "password" OR "confidential")