CVE-2024-13554
📋 TL;DR
The WP Extended WordPress plugin has an authorization bypass vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to reorder posts. This affects all WordPress sites using WP Extended plugin versions up to 3.0.13. Attackers can manipulate post ordering without any authentication.
💻 Affected Systems
- The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit - WP Extended
📦 What is this software?
Wp Extended by Wpextended
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could disrupt website content organization, manipulate featured content order, or combine with other vulnerabilities for more severe attacks.
Likely Case
Unauthenticated attackers reorder posts to disrupt website content flow, potentially affecting user experience or business operations.
If Mitigated
With proper access controls and monitoring, impact is limited to minor content manipulation that can be quickly detected and reverted.
🎯 Exploit Status
Direct API call to vulnerable function without authentication required.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 3.0.14 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=3233951%40wpextended&new=3233951%40wpextended&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins. 3. Find 'The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit - WP Extended'. 4. Click 'Update Now' if available, or download version 3.0.14+ from WordPress repository. 5. Activate updated plugin.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable vulnerable plugin
allTemporarily deactivate WP Extended plugin until patched version can be installed.
wp plugin deactivate wpextended
Restrict API access
allUse web application firewall to block unauthenticated access to plugin API endpoints.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Disable the WP Extended plugin completely
- Implement strict network access controls to limit who can reach the WordPress admin interface
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin > Plugins > Installed Plugins for WP Extended version 3.0.13 or earlier.Check Version:
wp plugin get wpextended --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Verify plugin version is 3.0.14 or later in WordPress admin panel.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unauthenticated POST requests to /wp-json/wpextended/v1/reorder
- Multiple post order changes from single IP
- 403 errors followed by successful reorder requests
Network Indicators:
- HTTP POST requests to reorder endpoint without authentication headers
- Unusual traffic patterns to WordPress REST API endpoints
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress" AND (uri_path="/wp-json/wpextended/v1/reorder" OR plugin="wpextended") AND http_method="POST" AND NOT user_agent="WordPress/*"