CVE-2024-13527
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability allows authenticated WordPress users with contributor-level access or higher to inject malicious scripts into website pages using the Philantro plugin's shortcodes. When other users visit pages containing these injected scripts, the scripts execute in their browsers. This affects all WordPress sites using Philantro plugin versions up to and including 5.3.
💻 Affected Systems
- Philantro – Donations and Donor Management for WordPress
📦 What is this software?
Philantro by Philantro
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could steal session cookies, redirect users to malicious sites, perform actions on behalf of users, or deploy malware to visitors' systems.
Likely Case
Attackers with contributor access inject malicious scripts that steal user session cookies or redirect users to phishing sites when they visit affected pages.
If Mitigated
With proper access controls limiting contributor accounts and regular security monitoring, impact is limited to isolated script injection that can be quickly detected and cleaned.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated access but is technically simple once an attacker has contributor-level credentials.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 5.4
Vendor Advisory: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3224699
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins. 3. Find Philantro plugin and click 'Update Now'. 4. Verify plugin version is 5.4 or higher.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable plugin
allTemporarily disable the Philantro plugin until patched
wp plugin deactivate philantro
Restrict user roles
linuxTemporarily remove contributor-level access from untrusted users
wp user list --role=contributor --field=ID | xargs wp user set-role subscriber
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to limit script execution
- Use web application firewall (WAF) rules to block XSS payloads in plugin shortcodes
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin panel → Plugins → Installed Plugins for Philantro version. If version is 5.3 or lower, you are vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin list --name=philantro --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
After updating, verify Philantro plugin shows version 5.4 or higher in WordPress admin panel.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual POST requests to WordPress admin-ajax.php with Philantro shortcode parameters
- Multiple page edits by contributor-level users in short time period
Network Indicators:
- Outbound connections to suspicious domains from your WordPress site after page visits
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND ("philantro" OR "donate shortcode") AND ("script" OR "onerror" OR "javascript:")