CVE-2024-24709: Shareaholic Auth Bypass Vulnerability

CVE-2024-24709 Overview

CVE-2024-24709 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability [CWE-862] affecting the Shareaholic WordPress plugin in versions up to and including 9.7.11. The flaw stems from incorrectly configured access control security levels, allowing authenticated users with low privileges to access functionality that should be restricted. The vulnerability is exploitable over the network with low attack complexity and requires no user interaction. Successful exploitation impacts the integrity of plugin configuration or data without affecting confidentiality or availability of the host system.

Critical Impact
Authenticated low-privileged users can invoke plugin functions that should be limited to administrators, leading to unauthorized modifications within the Shareaholic plugin scope.

Affected Products

Shareaholic WordPress plugin versions up to and including 9.7.11
WordPress sites running the affected plugin builds
Any environment where the plugin is active with subscriber-level or higher accounts

Discovery Timeline

2026-06-17 - CVE-2024-24709 published to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-24709

Vulnerability Analysis

The Shareaholic plugin exposes one or more AJAX or REST endpoints that fail to verify the capability level of the calling user. Functions intended for administrators rely on nonce checks or assume role enforcement without explicitly calling current_user_can() against the appropriate capability. As a result, any authenticated session — including subscriber-level accounts — can reach privileged code paths.

The issue is classified under [CWE-862] Missing Authorization. Because WordPress sites frequently allow open user registration or expose subscriber accounts through commerce and membership functionality, the prerequisite for exploitation is realistic in production environments. The integrity impact is limited to plugin-controlled data, which is why the recorded severity sits in the medium range rather than critical.

Root Cause

The root cause is the absence of a server-side authorization check on plugin handlers. WordPress plugins must validate both the request authenticity (nonce) and the caller's capability before performing privileged actions. Shareaholic versions through 9.7.11 implement only partial checks, treating an authenticated request as sufficient evidence of authority.

Attack Vector

An attacker first obtains a low-privileged WordPress account on the target site. The attacker then submits crafted HTTP requests to the unprotected plugin endpoint, supplying parameters that trigger configuration changes or other state-modifying behavior. No social engineering or victim interaction is required. Refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Advisory for endpoint-level technical details.

No verified public proof-of-concept code is available at the time of writing, so a code example is omitted to avoid fabrication.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-24709

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected requests from low-privileged user sessions to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php referencing Shareaholic action handlers
Modifications to Shareaholic plugin settings without a corresponding administrator session in the WordPress audit log
Outbound requests or content changes originating from the plugin shortly after subscriber-account activity

Detection Strategies

Audit web server logs for POST requests to plugin endpoints associated with shareaholic action parameters from non-administrator user IDs
Compare plugin configuration snapshots over time to identify unauthorized changes
Inspect WordPress user role assignments and recent registrations to identify low-privileged accounts created for abuse

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward WordPress and web server access logs to a centralized SIEM for correlation
Alert on any plugin setting changes that occur outside of administrator-authenticated sessions
Track creation of new low-privileged accounts followed by AJAX calls to administrative endpoints

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-24709

Immediate Actions Required

Update the Shareaholic plugin to a release beyond 9.7.11 that includes the access control fix
Disable open user registration if it is not required by the site
Review existing subscriber and contributor accounts and remove unused or untrusted ones
Restrict access to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php from untrusted networks where feasible

Patch Information

Refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Advisory for the fixed version and remediation guidance. Apply vendor-supplied updates promptly through the WordPress plugin manager.

Workarounds

Deactivate the Shareaholic plugin until a patched version can be applied
Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that blocks Shareaholic AJAX actions for non-administrator session cookies
Enforce capability checks at the reverse proxy by restricting plugin endpoints to authenticated administrator IPs where operationally feasible

bash

# Configuration example: temporarily disable the plugin via WP-CLI
wp plugin deactivate shareaholic
wp plugin update shareaholic