CVE-2024-11918
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in the WordPress Image Alt Text plugin allows authenticated attackers with subscriber-level access or higher to modify alt text on arbitrary images without proper authorization. It affects all WordPress sites using the plugin up to version 2.0.0. The issue stems from missing capability checks on AJAX endpoints.
💻 Affected Systems
- WordPress Image Alt Text plugin
⚠️ Manual Verification Required
This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.
Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).
🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.
- Review the CVE details at NVD
- Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
- Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
- Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could deface websites by changing image alt text to malicious content, potentially enabling SEO poisoning, phishing, or reputation damage.
Likely Case
Low-privileged users could tamper with image accessibility metadata, causing minor content integrity issues or SEO manipulation.
If Mitigated
With proper user access controls and monitoring, impact is limited to minor content modifications that can be audited and reverted.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated access but is straightforward via crafted AJAX requests.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 2.0.1
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins. 3. Find 'Image Alt Text' plugin. 4. Click 'Update Now' if available, or manually update to version 2.0.1. 5. Verify update completes successfully.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable vulnerable AJAX endpoints
allRemove or restrict access to the vulnerable iat_add_alt_txt_action and iat_update_alt_txt_action AJAX handlers
Add to theme's functions.php or custom plugin: remove_action('wp_ajax_iat_add_alt_txt_action', 'iat_add_alt_txt_action'); remove_action('wp_ajax_iat_update_alt_txt_action', 'iat_update_alt_txt_action');
Temporary plugin deactivation
linuxDisable the Image Alt Text plugin until patched
wp plugin deactivate image-alt-text
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Restrict user roles: Limit subscriber-level access or implement additional capability checks for image modifications.
- Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to block suspicious AJAX requests targeting the vulnerable endpoints.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin → Plugins → Image Alt Text → Version. If version is 2.0.0 or lower, you are vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin get image-alt-text --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
After updating, confirm plugin version shows 2.0.1 or higher in WordPress admin panel.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual AJAX requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action parameters 'iat_add_alt_txt_action' or 'iat_update_alt_txt_action' from low-privileged users
- Multiple image alt text modifications from non-editor/author roles
Network Indicators:
- POST requests to admin-ajax.php with image ID parameters from unexpected user roles
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND (action="iat_add_alt_txt_action" OR action="iat_update_alt_txt_action") AND user_role="subscriber"