CVE-2024-9822
📋 TL;DR
The Pedalo Connector WordPress plugin has an authentication bypass vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to log in as the first user (typically the administrator). This affects all WordPress sites using vulnerable versions of the plugin, potentially giving attackers full administrative control.
💻 Affected Systems
- WordPress Pedalo Connector plugin
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete site takeover with administrative privileges, allowing data theft, malware injection, defacement, or use as an attack platform.
Likely Case
Attackers gain administrative access to compromise the WordPress site, install backdoors, steal sensitive data, or pivot to other systems.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if strong network controls, web application firewalls, and monitoring prevent exploitation attempts.
🎯 Exploit Status
Simple HTTP request to vulnerable endpoint can trigger the authentication bypass.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 2.0.6 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/pedalo-connector/tags/2.0.6
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins. 3. Find Pedalo Connector and update to version 2.0.6 or later. 4. Alternatively, deactivate and delete the plugin if not needed.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable Pedalo Connector plugin
allDeactivate the vulnerable plugin to prevent exploitation.
wp plugin deactivate pedalo-connector
Web Application Firewall rule
allBlock requests to the vulnerable endpoint.
Block HTTP requests containing 'login_admin_user' parameter
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Immediately deactivate the Pedalo Connector plugin via WordPress admin or command line
- Implement network-level restrictions to limit access to WordPress admin interfaces
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin → Plugins → Installed Plugins for Pedalo Connector version 2.0.5 or earlier.Check Version:
wp plugin list --name=pedalo-connector --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm Pedalo Connector is updated to version 2.0.6+ or completely removed.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual admin login events from unexpected IPs
- HTTP requests containing 'login_admin_user' parameter
Network Indicators:
- POST requests to /wp-content/plugins/pedalo-connector/ with authentication bypass parameters
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND "login_admin_user" OR source="web.log" AND "pedalo-connector" AND "POST"