CVE-2024-49273
📋 TL;DR
ProfileGrid WordPress plugin versions up to 5.9.3 have a missing authorization vulnerability that allows attackers to perform unauthorized actions. This affects WordPress sites using ProfileGrid for user profiles, groups, and communities. Attackers can exploit this to modify settings or user data without proper permissions.
💻 Affected Systems
- ProfileGrid User Profiles, Groups and Communities WordPress Plugin
📦 What is this software?
Profilegrid by Metagauss
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could modify plugin settings, alter user profiles, or perform administrative actions leading to site compromise or data manipulation.
Likely Case
Unauthorized users could change their own or other users' profile settings, potentially escalating privileges or disrupting user experience.
If Mitigated
With proper authorization checks, only authenticated users with appropriate permissions could perform actions, limiting impact to authorized operations.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires some level of access but doesn't need administrative privileges. The vulnerability is in authorization logic rather than authentication.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 5.9.4 or later
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins. 3. Find ProfileGrid plugin. 4. Click 'Update Now' if update available. 5. Alternatively, download latest version from WordPress.org and replace plugin files.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Temporary Plugin Deactivation
allDisable ProfileGrid plugin until patched to prevent exploitation
wp plugin deactivate profilegrid-user-profiles-groups-and-communities
Access Restriction
allRestrict access to ProfileGrid functionality using web application firewall or .htaccess rules
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict access controls and monitor for unauthorized profile modifications
- Use web application firewall to block suspicious requests to ProfileGrid endpoints
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin → Plugins → ProfileGrid version. If version is 5.9.3 or earlier, you are vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin get profilegrid-user-profiles-groups-and-communities --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
After updating, verify ProfileGrid version shows 5.9.4 or later in WordPress plugins list.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unauthorized POST requests to ProfileGrid endpoints
- Unexpected profile modifications by non-admin users
- Failed authorization attempts in WordPress logs
Network Indicators:
- HTTP requests to /wp-content/plugins/profilegrid/ endpoints without proper authentication headers
- Unusual pattern of profile update requests
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND ("profilegrid" OR "profile modification") AND response_code=200 AND user_role!=administrator