CVE-2024-32555: Easy Real Estate Privilege Escalation

CVE-2024-32555 Overview

CVE-2024-32555 is an Incorrect Privilege Assignment vulnerability (CWE-266) affecting the Easy Real Estate WordPress plugin. This privilege escalation flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to elevate their privileges within WordPress installations running vulnerable versions of the plugin. The vulnerability exists in versions from n/a through 2.2.6 of the Easy Real Estate plugin.

Critical Impact

This vulnerability enables unauthenticated attackers to escalate privileges on affected WordPress sites, potentially gaining administrative access without requiring any prior authentication or user interaction.

Affected Products

• Easy Real Estate WordPress plugin versions up to and including 2.2.6
• WordPress installations with the Easy Real Estate plugin active

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-01-21 - CVE-2024-32555 published to NVD
• 2025-01-21 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-32555

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability stems from an Incorrect Privilege Assignment flaw within the Easy Real Estate WordPress plugin. The plugin fails to properly validate and enforce privilege levels during certain operations, allowing attackers to bypass intended access controls. Due to the network-accessible nature of WordPress installations and the lack of authentication requirements, this vulnerability presents a significant risk to affected sites. Successful exploitation could result in complete compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected WordPress installation.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2024-32555 is improper privilege assignment logic within the Easy Real Estate plugin. The vulnerable code fails to adequately verify user roles and permissions before granting elevated access, creating an authorization bypass that attackers can leverage. This is classified under CWE-266 (Incorrect Privilege Assignment), which occurs when a product incorrectly assigns a privilege to a user, creating an unintended privilege escalation pathway.

Attack Vector

The attack is network-based and requires no authentication or user interaction to exploit. An attacker can remotely target WordPress installations running the vulnerable plugin versions. The privilege escalation mechanism allows unauthenticated users to obtain higher-level permissions, potentially including administrative access to the WordPress site. This could enable attackers to modify content, install malicious plugins, access sensitive data, or use the compromised site as a launching point for further attacks.

The vulnerability affects the authentication and authorization flow within the plugin, where insufficient validation of user privilege levels allows unauthorized role elevation.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-32555

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected user account creation with elevated privileges (Administrator or Editor roles)
• Unauthorized modifications to WordPress settings or configurations
• Suspicious API requests targeting Easy Real Estate plugin endpoints
• Unusual login activity or session tokens for non-existent or newly created accounts
• Modified plugin files or unexpected file changes in the Easy Real Estate plugin directory

Detection Strategies

• Monitor WordPress user database for unauthorized account creation or privilege changes
• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect privilege escalation attempts
• Enable detailed WordPress access logging and review for suspicious activity patterns
• Deploy file integrity monitoring on the wp-content/plugins/easy-real-estate/ directory
• Use security plugins to audit user role changes and administrative actions

Monitoring Recommendations

• Configure alerts for new administrator or high-privilege user account creation
• Monitor HTTP request logs for anomalous patterns targeting the Easy Real Estate plugin
• Implement real-time monitoring of WordPress database tables related to user roles and capabilities
• Review access logs regularly for requests from unusual IP addresses or geolocations

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-32555

Immediate Actions Required

• Update the Easy Real Estate plugin to a patched version immediately (if available)
• Audit all WordPress user accounts for unauthorized privilege escalations
• Review and remove any suspicious or unauthorized administrator accounts
• Consider temporarily deactivating the Easy Real Estate plugin until a patch is applied
• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with rules to block privilege escalation attempts

Patch Information

Organizations should monitor the Patchstack WordPress Vulnerability Database for official patch information and updates from the plugin developer. Update to a version higher than 2.2.6 once a security patch is released.

Workarounds

• Temporarily deactivate the Easy Real Estate plugin until a patched version is available
• Implement strict network-level access controls to limit access to the WordPress admin area
• Use security plugins like Wordfence or Sucuri to add additional authentication layers
• Configure .htaccess rules to restrict access to plugin-specific endpoints
• Enable two-factor authentication for all WordPress administrator accounts

# WordPress security hardening - restrict plugin access via .htaccess
# Add to wp-content/plugins/easy-real-estate/.htaccess

# Deny direct access to plugin files
<FilesMatch "\.(php|inc)$">
    Order Deny,Allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 127.0.0.1
</FilesMatch>

# Log all access attempts for monitoring
SetEnvIf Request_URI "easy-real-estate" log_plugin_access
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/ere-access.log combined env=log_plugin_access