CVE-2024-54356: Vcita Calendar CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2024-54356 Overview

CVE-2024-54356 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting the vcita Online Booking & Scheduling Calendar plugin for WordPress. The flaw impacts all versions up to and including 4.5. An attacker can trick an authenticated WordPress user into submitting a forged request that performs unintended actions within the plugin. The issue is tracked under CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery.

Critical Impact
Successful exploitation allows an attacker to alter plugin state or trigger privileged actions in the context of a logged-in WordPress user, requiring only that the victim visits a malicious page.

Affected Products

vcita Online Booking & Scheduling Calendar for WordPress (plugin slug meeting-scheduler-by-vcita)
All versions from initial release through 4.5
WordPress sites using the vulnerable plugin build

Discovery Timeline

2024-12-16 - CVE-2024-54356 published to NVD
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-54356

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in one or more request handlers exposed by the meeting-scheduler-by-vcita plugin. These handlers process state-changing requests without verifying a valid WordPress nonce or equivalent anti-CSRF token. As a result, the plugin cannot distinguish between requests initiated intentionally by an authenticated user and requests forged by a third-party site.

Exploitation requires user interaction. An attacker crafts a malicious page or link that triggers a request to the target WordPress site. If a logged-in administrator or authorized user visits that page, the browser automatically attaches session cookies and the forged request executes with the victim's privileges. The confidentiality impact is none, while integrity and availability face limited impact.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing or improperly validated CSRF protection on plugin endpoints. WordPress provides the wp_nonce_field() and check_admin_referer() primitives to defend against such attacks. The affected plugin versions do not enforce these checks on the vulnerable actions, leaving state-changing operations open to cross-origin abuse.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based and requires user interaction. See the Patchstack advisory for coordinated disclosure details. A typical attack chain involves the attacker hosting a page containing an auto-submitting HTML form or image tag that targets the plugin's admin endpoint. When an authenticated WordPress user loads the attacker-controlled content, the browser issues the forged request and the plugin processes it as legitimate.

No public proof-of-concept exploit code is available in the referenced advisories, and the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-54356

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected changes to booking, scheduling, or plugin configuration values that do not correlate with legitimate administrator activity
WordPress access logs showing POST requests to plugin endpoints with Referer headers pointing to external, unrelated domains
Requests to meeting-scheduler-by-vcita handlers that lack the expected _wpnonce or _wp_http_referer parameters

Detection Strategies

Inspect web server and WordPress audit logs for administrative actions originating from cross-origin referrers
Correlate plugin configuration changes with authenticated user session activity to identify actions the user did not intend
Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that flags state-changing requests to the plugin path missing valid nonce parameters

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable a WordPress audit logging plugin to capture plugin option changes and administrative events
Alert on outbound clicks or email links that redirect logged-in administrators to unrecognized third-party pages
Monitor for spikes in 4xx or 3xx responses on plugin endpoints, which may indicate probing attempts

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-54356

Immediate Actions Required

Update the meeting-scheduler-by-vcita plugin to a version later than 4.5 as soon as a patched release is available from vcita
Restrict administrative access to trusted networks and require administrators to log out when not actively managing the site
Enforce browser session isolation for WordPress administrators to limit cross-origin request exposure

Patch Information

At the time of NVD publication, the advisory identifies all versions up to and including 4.5 as vulnerable. Site owners should consult the Patchstack advisory and the WordPress plugin repository for the latest fixed release from vcita before upgrading.

Workarounds

Temporarily deactivate the vcita Online Booking & Scheduling Calendar plugin if a patched version is not yet available
Deploy a WAF rule that blocks requests to plugin endpoints when the Referer header does not match the site's own origin
Require administrators to use a dedicated browser profile for WordPress management to reduce cookie sharing with untrusted sites

bash

# Example ModSecurity rule: block cross-origin POSTs to the vulnerable plugin path
SecRule REQUEST_METHOD "@streq POST" \
  "chain,id:1005401,phase:2,deny,status:403,msg:'CVE-2024-54356 CSRF block'"
  SecRule REQUEST_URI "@contains meeting-scheduler-by-vcita" \
    "chain"
    SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:Referer "!@beginsWith https://your-wordpress-site.example/" "t:none"