CVE-2024-13676
📋 TL;DR
This SQL injection vulnerability in the WordPress Categorized Gallery Plugin allows authenticated attackers with Contributor-level access or higher to inject malicious SQL queries through the 'field' attribute in shortcodes. Attackers can extract sensitive information from the database, including user credentials and other confidential data. All WordPress sites using this plugin up to version 2.0 are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- WordPress Categorized Gallery 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
Complete database compromise leading to credential theft, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, and potential site takeover.
Likely Case
Extraction of sensitive user data, admin credentials, and plugin configuration information from the database.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if proper input validation and parameterized queries are implemented, restricting data access to authorized users only.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires authenticated access but uses simple SQL injection techniques. The vulnerability is well-documented with public references.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 2.1 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/categorized-gallery/trunk/init.php#L177
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins. 3. Find 'Categorized Gallery Plugin'. 4. Click 'Update Now' if update is available. 5. Alternatively, download version 2.1+ from WordPress plugin repository and manually update.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable vulnerable shortcode
allRemove or disable the 'image_gallery' shortcode functionality to prevent exploitation.
Add to theme functions.php: remove_shortcode('image_gallery');
Input validation filter
allAdd input validation for the 'field' parameter before processing.
Add to theme functions.php: add_filter('shortcode_atts_image_gallery', 'validate_gallery_field', 10, 3); function validate_gallery_field($out, $pairs, $atts) { if(isset($atts['field']) && !preg_match('/^[a-zA-Z0-9_]+$/', $atts['field'])) { $atts['field'] = ''; } return $atts; }
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Remove Contributor and higher role access from untrusted users
- Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to block SQL injection patterns
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin panel → Plugins → Installed Plugins for 'Categorized Gallery Plugin' version 2.0 or lower.Check Version:
wp plugin list --name='Categorized Gallery Plugin' --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm plugin version is 2.1 or higher in WordPress admin panel and test shortcode functionality.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual database queries from WordPress users
- Multiple failed SQL queries with malformed parameters
- Suspicious POST requests containing 'field' parameter with SQL syntax
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests with SQL keywords in 'field' parameter
- Unusual database connection patterns from web server
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND ("image_gallery" OR "field=") AND ("UNION" OR "SELECT" OR "FROM" OR "WHERE" OR "--" OR "' OR '")