CVE-2024-50506 Overview
CVE-2024-50506 is a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Marketing Automation by AZEXO WordPress plugin. The flaw stems from incorrect privilege assignment [CWE-266] and affects all versions up to and including 1.27.80. An authenticated attacker with low-level access can leverage the plugin to elevate privileges on the target WordPress site. Successful exploitation grants attackers administrative capabilities, enabling site takeover, arbitrary content modification, and secondary attacks against site visitors.
Critical Impact
Authenticated attackers with minimal privileges can escalate to administrator, resulting in full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected WordPress site.
Affected Products
- Marketing Automation by AZEXO (marketing-automation-by-azexo) WordPress plugin
- All versions from initial release through 1.27.80
- WordPress sites with the plugin installed and activated
Discovery Timeline
- 2024-10-30 - CVE-2024-50506 published to NVD
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2024-50506
Vulnerability Analysis
The vulnerability is classified under CWE-266: Incorrect Privilege Assignment. The plugin assigns privileges to users without properly enforcing role boundaries. This allows a user holding a low-privilege account, such as subscriber or contributor, to acquire capabilities intended for administrators.
The attack requires network access to the WordPress site and valid authenticated credentials at a low privilege tier. No user interaction is needed to complete the escalation. Once elevated, the attacker inherits full administrative capabilities within WordPress, including plugin management, user account manipulation, and arbitrary PHP execution through theme or plugin editors.
An EPSS score of 0.453% places this vulnerability in the 37th percentile for observed exploitation likelihood. No public proof-of-concept exploit is currently listed, and the vulnerability is not present on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
Root Cause
The root cause is improper enforcement of role and capability checks within the plugin's privilege-handling logic. When the plugin processes user-facing actions, it fails to validate whether the requesting user is authorized to perform administrative operations. This missing capability check allows arbitrary role or capability assignment to the authenticated caller.
Attack Vector
An attacker authenticates to the WordPress site using any low-privilege account. The attacker then invokes the vulnerable plugin endpoint that handles privilege operations. Because the plugin does not restrict access to administrators, the endpoint accepts the request and grants elevated capabilities. The attacker subsequently uses the new privileges to install malicious plugins, modify site content, or exfiltrate stored data. Refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for detailed technical analysis.
Detection Methods for CVE-2024-50506
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected changes to user roles or capabilities in the wp_usermeta table, particularly wp_capabilities entries granting administrator to previously low-privilege accounts.
- New administrator accounts created outside of normal provisioning workflows.
- Installation of unfamiliar plugins or themes shortly after suspicious authentication events.
- Modifications to wp-config.php, theme files, or plugin PHP source without corresponding change records.
Detection Strategies
- Monitor WordPress audit logs for role changes and capability grants targeting non-administrator accounts.
- Compare current user role assignments against a known-good baseline and alert on deviations.
- Inspect HTTP access logs for POST requests to marketing-automation-by-azexo plugin endpoints originating from low-privilege sessions.
- Correlate authentication events with subsequent privilege changes occurring within short time windows.
Monitoring Recommendations
- Enable file integrity monitoring on the WordPress installation directory, especially wp-content/plugins/ and wp-content/themes/.
- Forward WordPress and web server logs to a centralized SIEM for correlation and retention.
- Alert on outbound connections from the web server process to unexpected destinations, which may indicate post-compromise activity.
How to Mitigate CVE-2024-50506
Immediate Actions Required
- Identify all WordPress sites running the Marketing Automation by AZEXO plugin at version 1.27.80 or earlier.
- Deactivate and remove the plugin until a fixed version is confirmed available from the vendor.
- Audit all WordPress user accounts and remove any unauthorized administrators or unexpected capability grants.
- Rotate credentials for all administrator accounts and enforce strong password policies.
Patch Information
As of the last NVD update on 2026-06-17, no fixed version is referenced in the advisory. Site owners should consult the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for current patch status and apply vendor updates as soon as they are published.
Workarounds
- Uninstall the Marketing Automation by AZEXO plugin until a patched release is available.
- Restrict registration on the WordPress site to trusted users and disable open user registration where feasible.
- Deploy a web application firewall (WAF) rule to block requests to vulnerable plugin endpoints from non-administrator sessions.
- Enforce multi-factor authentication on all WordPress accounts to raise the cost of credential compromise.
# Disable open registration and remove the vulnerable plugin via WP-CLI
wp option update users_can_register 0
wp plugin deactivate marketing-automation-by-azexo
wp plugin uninstall marketing-automation-by-azexo
# Audit for unexpected administrators
wp user list --role=administrator --fields=ID,user_login,user_email,user_registered
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
