CVE-2024-49304 Overview
CVE-2024-49304 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the DOTonPAPER Pinpoint Booking System plugin for WordPress. The flaw affects all versions up to and including 2.9.9.5.7. When exploited, the CSRF weakness enables an attacker to inject stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) payloads through actions performed by an authenticated administrator. The vulnerability is tracked under CWE-352 and requires user interaction, typically a victim clicking a crafted link while logged into the target WordPress site.
Critical Impact
Successful exploitation results in persistent JavaScript execution in administrator or visitor browsers, enabling session theft, content manipulation, or delivery of secondary payloads.
Affected Products
- DOTonPAPER Pinpoint Booking System (WordPress plugin booking-system)
- All versions from initial release through 2.9.9.5.7
- WordPress sites with the plugin active and an authenticated administrator user
Discovery Timeline
- 2024-10-17 - CVE-2024-49304 published to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2024-49304
Vulnerability Analysis
The vulnerability chains two weaknesses. The primary flaw is missing or insufficient CSRF protection on state-changing requests within the Pinpoint Booking System plugin. The secondary flaw is insufficient output encoding or input sanitization on fields modified by those requests, which allows the injected data to be stored and later rendered as executable script.
An attacker crafts a malicious page or email link that submits a forged request to the vulnerable plugin endpoint. If a logged-in administrator visits the attacker-controlled resource, the browser silently submits the request using the administrator's session cookies. The plugin processes the request as if the administrator authored it and persists the attacker-supplied script into the database.
Because the payload is stored, every subsequent visitor or administrator who loads the affected page executes the injected script in their browser context. This produces a persistent XSS condition rather than a transient reflected one.
Root Cause
The root cause is the absence of anti-CSRF tokens (WordPress nonces) on plugin request handlers, combined with missing sanitization of user-controlled input before storage. Requests that modify booking configuration or content do not verify request origin, and stored values are rendered without adequate encoding.
Attack Vector
Exploitation requires network access to trick an authenticated administrator into visiting attacker-controlled content. No credentials are required from the attacker directly, but victim interaction is mandatory. The attack executes over HTTP or HTTPS against the WordPress admin interface.
Refer to the Patchstack advisory for the Pinpoint Booking System plugin for additional technical context.
Detection Methods for CVE-2024-49304
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected <script> tags, event handlers such as onerror= or onload=, or javascript: URIs stored in Pinpoint Booking System configuration tables and options
- HTTP POST requests to plugin admin endpoints lacking a valid WordPress nonce parameter (_wpnonce)
- Referer headers on plugin admin POST requests originating from external domains
- New or modified administrator sessions immediately following a plugin configuration change
Detection Strategies
- Inspect WordPress database rows associated with the booking-system plugin for HTML or JavaScript content in fields intended to hold plain text
- Correlate web server access logs for administrator requests to plugin endpoints against expected referrers from wp-admin
- Deploy a web application firewall rule to flag POST requests to booking-system endpoints missing nonce parameters
Monitoring Recommendations
- Enable WordPress audit logging to record configuration changes made through the Pinpoint Booking System interface
- Monitor browser Content Security Policy (CSP) violation reports for inline script execution on booking pages
- Alert on administrator account activity following visits to untrusted external links
How to Mitigate CVE-2024-49304
Immediate Actions Required
- Identify all WordPress installations running the Pinpoint Booking System plugin at version 2.9.9.5.7 or earlier
- Deactivate the plugin until a patched version is applied if administrators cannot avoid untrusted browsing during their sessions
- Review plugin-managed database entries for stored script payloads and remove any unauthorized content
- Force password reset and session invalidation for administrator accounts if compromise is suspected
Patch Information
Refer to the Patchstack advisory for the current fixed release. Upgrade the booking-system plugin to a version later than 2.9.9.5.7 once available, and verify integrity after the update.
Workarounds
- Restrict WordPress administrator access to a dedicated browser profile that does not visit untrusted sites
- Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline script execution on pages rendered by the plugin
- Place the WordPress admin interface behind IP allow-listing or a VPN to limit CSRF exposure
- Require multi-factor authentication (MFA) for administrator logins to reduce impact of session abuse
# Example: enforce a restrictive Content Security Policy header in Apache
Header always set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; object-src 'none'; frame-ancestors 'self'"
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
