CVE-2024-5973
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in the MasterStudy LMS WordPress plugin allows students to create instructor accounts, bypassing intended access controls. Attackers can escalate privileges to gain unauthorized access to instructor-only functionalities. All WordPress sites using vulnerable versions of this plugin are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- MasterStudy LMS WordPress Plugin
📦 What is this software?
Masterstudy Lms by Stylemixthemes
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Students gain full instructor privileges, potentially accessing sensitive student data, modifying courses, issuing certificates, or compromising the entire LMS system.
Likely Case
Students create instructor accounts to access premium content, modify grades, or bypass course restrictions without payment.
If Mitigated
With proper user role validation and monitoring, unauthorized account creations are detected and prevented before causing damage.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires student-level access. The vulnerability is in account creation logic, making exploitation straightforward for authenticated students.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 3.3.24
Vendor Advisory: https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/59abfb7c-d5ea-45f2-ab9a-4391978e3805/
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel
2. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins
3. Find MasterStudy LMS plugin
4. Click 'Update Now' if update is available
5. Alternatively, download version 3.3.24+ from WordPress repository and manually update
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable Student Registration
allTemporarily disable student account registration to prevent exploitation while patching.
Role-Based Access Restriction
allUse WordPress role management plugins to restrict account creation capabilities for student roles.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict monitoring of user role changes and new instructor account creations.
- Disable the MasterStudy LMS plugin entirely until patching is possible.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin → Plugins → Installed Plugins → MasterStudy LMS version. If version is below 3.3.24, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin list --name=masterstudy-lms-learning-management-system --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
After updating, verify plugin version shows 3.3.24 or higher. Test with a student account that creating instructor accounts is no longer possible.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unexpected user role changes from 'student' to 'instructor'
- Multiple instructor account creations from student IPs
- WordPress user registration logs showing privilege escalation
Network Indicators:
- Increased API calls to user registration endpoints from student accounts
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress" (event_type="user_registration" OR event_type="role_change") user_role="instructor" src_user_role="student"