CVE-2024-43925: Envira Gallery Auth Bypass Vulnerability

CVE-2024-43925 Overview

CVE-2024-43925 is a Missing Authorization vulnerability [CWE-862] in the Envira Photo Gallery WordPress plugin developed by the Envira Gallery Team. The flaw affects Envira Photo Gallery Lite versions from an unspecified initial release through 1.8.14. Authenticated attackers with low privileges can exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels to perform actions restricted to higher-privileged users. The issue impacts WordPress sites running the vulnerable plugin versions and can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive gallery functionality.

Critical Impact
Authenticated users with minimal privileges can bypass access controls to compromise confidentiality, integrity, and availability of WordPress installations running vulnerable versions of Envira Photo Gallery.

Affected Products

Envira Photo Gallery Lite for WordPress (versions up to and including 1.8.14)
WordPress installations with the Envira Photo Gallery plugin enabled
Sites permitting low-privileged authenticated user registration alongside the plugin

Discovery Timeline

2024-11-01 - CVE-2024-43925 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-43925

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability stems from missing authorization checks in the Envira Photo Gallery plugin. Functions intended for privileged users lack proper capability validation before execution. Attackers authenticated at low privilege levels can invoke these functions and obtain access equivalent to higher-privileged roles.

Exploitation requires network access and authenticated session context, but no user interaction. The attack complexity is low, meaning a straightforward request to affected plugin endpoints achieves the impact. Because the plugin runs within the WordPress request lifecycle, exploitation can affect data confidentiality, integrity, and availability across the WordPress installation.

Root Cause

The root cause is an incorrectly configured access control security level within plugin request handlers. The affected endpoints do not enforce current_user_can() capability checks or nonce validation consistent with the sensitivity of the actions performed. This omission maps directly to CWE-862 (Missing Authorization), where the software fails to perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or execute an action.

Attack Vector

An attacker authenticated as a low-privileged WordPress user, such as a subscriber, sends crafted HTTP requests to Envira Photo Gallery plugin endpoints. Because authorization is not enforced, the plugin processes the request as if the caller possessed the required capabilities. Refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for endpoint-level technical details.

No public proof-of-concept exploit code has been published, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog at time of writing.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-43925

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected changes to gallery configuration, media library entries, or plugin settings created by low-privileged accounts.
Anomalous authenticated POST requests to admin-ajax.php referencing Envira Gallery actions from subscriber-level users.
Newly created or modified WordPress content correlated with subscriber accounts that should not have editorial capabilities.

Detection Strategies

Inventory WordPress installations and identify sites running Envira Photo Gallery versions at or below 1.8.14.
Review WordPress access logs for authenticated requests to Envira Gallery AJAX endpoints originating from non-privileged user IDs.
Correlate plugin activity with user role changes or unexpected administrative actions in the WordPress audit trail.

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable a WordPress security or activity logging plugin to capture user actions, role usage, and plugin endpoint access.
Alert on subscriber or contributor accounts invoking gallery management functions.
Forward WordPress and web server logs to a centralized logging platform for correlation and long-term retention.

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-43925

Immediate Actions Required

Update Envira Photo Gallery Lite to a version later than 1.8.14 on all affected WordPress installations.
Audit existing WordPress user accounts and remove or downgrade any subscriber accounts that are not required.
Review recent site changes to identify any unauthorized modifications performed through the vulnerable plugin.

Patch Information

Refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for the fixed release information and vendor remediation guidance. Apply the plugin update through the WordPress admin interface or via WP-CLI as part of your standard patch management process.

Workarounds

Temporarily deactivate the Envira Photo Gallery plugin until the update is applied if patching cannot occur immediately.
Disable new user self-registration under Settings > General to reduce the pool of accounts capable of authenticating.
Deploy a web application firewall rule to block unauthenticated or low-privileged requests to Envira Gallery AJAX endpoints.

bash

# Update the Envira Photo Gallery Lite plugin using WP-CLI
wp plugin update envira-gallery-lite --path=/var/www/html
wp plugin list --name=envira-gallery-lite --fields=name,status,version