CVE-2024-49685 Overview
CVE-2024-49685 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability [CWE-352] affecting the Smashballoon Custom Twitter Feeds (Tweets Widget) plugin for WordPress. The flaw impacts all plugin versions up to and including 2.2.3. An attacker can craft a malicious web page or link that, once visited by an authenticated administrator, triggers unauthorized state-changing actions in the plugin without the user's consent. The vulnerability requires user interaction but no privileges, and can be delivered remotely over the network.
Critical Impact
Successful exploitation enables attackers to perform unauthorized actions in the context of an authenticated WordPress administrator, potentially altering plugin configuration and affecting site integrity, confidentiality, and availability.
Affected Products
- Smashballoon Custom Twitter Feeds (Tweets Widget) WordPress plugin
- All versions from n/a through <= 2.2.3
- WordPress sites running the custom-twitter-feeds plugin
Discovery Timeline
- 2024-10-31 - CVE-2024-49685 published to NVD
- 2026-04-23 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2024-49685
Vulnerability Analysis
The vulnerability stems from missing or insufficient anti-CSRF protections in the Custom Twitter Feeds (Tweets Widget) plugin. WordPress provides nonce-based request validation, but affected plugin endpoints fail to verify the origin or authenticity of incoming state-changing HTTP requests. An attacker who lures an authenticated administrator to a malicious page can trigger plugin actions using the victim's authenticated session.
The attack does not require credentials. Instead, it abuses the trust the application places in the user's browser session cookies. Because the action runs with administrator privileges, the impact extends to high confidentiality, integrity, and availability outcomes for the WordPress site. The Patchstack advisory tracks this flaw and confirms exploitation requires only social engineering of a privileged user.
Root Cause
The root cause is the absence of proper nonce verification on plugin endpoints handling administrative actions. WordPress plugins should validate requests with wp_verify_nonce() or check_admin_referer() to ensure requests originate from legitimate sources. The custom-twitter-feeds plugin omits or improperly applies these checks through version 2.2.3.
Attack Vector
An attacker hosts a malicious page containing an auto-submitting form or image tag that targets vulnerable plugin endpoints on the victim's WordPress site. When an authenticated administrator visits the attacker-controlled page, the browser submits the forged request using the administrator's active session cookies. The plugin processes the request as legitimate and executes the action.
No verified proof-of-concept code is publicly available. Refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for additional technical context.
Detection Methods for CVE-2024-49685
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected configuration changes within the Custom Twitter Feeds plugin settings
- WordPress access logs showing administrator POST requests to plugin endpoints with external Referer headers
- Browser-initiated requests to plugin admin URLs that lack a valid _wpnonce parameter
- Administrator account activity originating immediately after visiting untrusted external links
Detection Strategies
- Audit WordPress access.log and error.log files for state-changing requests to custom-twitter-feeds plugin endpoints with mismatched or missing Referer headers
- Compare current plugin settings against known-good baselines to identify unauthorized modifications
- Enable WordPress audit logging plugins to record administrative actions and detect anomalous configuration changes
Monitoring Recommendations
- Monitor outbound browser traffic from administrative workstations for connections to suspicious domains preceding plugin configuration changes
- Alert on HTTP requests to /wp-admin/admin.php or /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php containing custom-twitter-feeds parameters without valid nonces
- Track plugin version inventory across WordPress deployments to identify hosts still running <= 2.2.3
How to Mitigate CVE-2024-49685
Immediate Actions Required
- Update the Custom Twitter Feeds (Tweets Widget) plugin to a version newer than 2.2.3 as soon as a fixed release is available
- Restrict WordPress administrator browsing habits and require dedicated browser profiles for administrative tasks
- Review plugin configuration for unauthorized changes and revert any unexpected modifications
- Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule to block requests to plugin endpoints lacking valid _wpnonce tokens
Patch Information
Consult the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for the current fix status and upgrade guidance. Apply vendor updates through the WordPress plugin manager once available.
Workarounds
- Temporarily deactivate the custom-twitter-feeds plugin until a patched version is installed
- Enforce SameSite=Strict cookie attributes on WordPress session cookies to limit cross-origin request forwarding
- Require administrators to log out of WordPress sessions before browsing untrusted sites
- Deploy a security plugin that adds CSRF token validation to administrative endpoints
# Configuration example: harden WordPress against CSRF via .htaccess Referer checks
# Block POST requests to wp-admin that originate from external domains
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} POST
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https?://(www\.)?yourdomain\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/wp-admin/ [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
