CVE-2024-54388 Overview
CVE-2024-54388 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting the Multiple Admin Emails WordPress plugin developed by Phuc Pham. The flaw exists in all plugin versions up to and including 1.0. Attackers can chain the CSRF weakness with a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) payload to execute arbitrary script in the context of an authenticated administrator. The vulnerability is tracked under CWE-352.
Critical Impact
An attacker who tricks a logged-in WordPress administrator into visiting a malicious page can submit unauthorized plugin requests, persist malicious JavaScript, and compromise the WordPress admin session.
Affected Products
- Multiple Admin Emails plugin (multiple-admin-emails) for WordPress
- All versions from n/a through 1.0
- WordPress sites with the plugin installed and an active administrator session
Discovery Timeline
- 2024-12-16 - CVE-2024-54388 published to the National Vulnerability Database
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2024-54388
Vulnerability Analysis
The Multiple Admin Emails plugin fails to validate the authenticity of state-changing HTTP requests. Plugin endpoints process administrative actions without verifying a WordPress nonce or equivalent anti-CSRF token. An attacker can craft a forged request that the victim's browser submits automatically when the victim is authenticated to WordPress.
The Patchstack advisory identifies this issue as a CSRF chained to a stored XSS condition. Input passed through the forged request is persisted and rendered in administrative views without adequate output encoding. As a result, the injected script executes whenever an administrator loads the affected page.
Exploitation requires user interaction. The administrator must visit attacker-controlled content while a valid WordPress session is active. Further technical detail is documented in the Patchstack Vulnerability Report.
Root Cause
The plugin omits nonce verification on request handlers that update plugin configuration. WordPress provides wp_nonce_field() and check_admin_referer() for this purpose, but the affected handlers do not call them. Combined with missing output sanitization on stored values, the missing nonce check allows persistent script injection.
Attack Vector
The attack is network-based and requires no privileges on the target site. The attacker hosts a page containing a hidden form or JavaScript that auto-submits to the vulnerable plugin endpoint. When an authenticated administrator visits the page, the browser sends the request with session cookies attached. The forged request stores attacker-controlled JavaScript, which executes in subsequent administrator views.
No verified proof-of-concept code is publicly available. The vulnerability mechanism is described above based on the Patchstack Vulnerability Report.
Detection Methods for CVE-2024-54388
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected <script> tags or HTML event handlers stored in plugin-managed settings or admin email entries
- WordPress admin POST requests originating from external Referer headers pointing to untrusted domains
- New or modified administrator email entries that correlate with administrator browsing activity to third-party sites
- Outbound requests from administrator browsers to attacker-controlled domains shortly after visiting wp-admin pages
Detection Strategies
- Review WordPress access logs for POST requests to multiple-admin-emails plugin endpoints that lack the standard _wpnonce parameter
- Inspect database tables wp_options and plugin-specific tables for stored values containing HTML or JavaScript syntax
- Compare current plugin installations against a known-good baseline to detect tampering with stored configuration
Monitoring Recommendations
- Enable WordPress audit logging to capture administrative setting changes and the source IP for each change
- Forward web server logs to a centralized analytics platform and alert on admin-area POST requests with anomalous Referer headers
- Monitor for browser-side script execution within /wp-admin/ paths using Content Security Policy (CSP) reporting endpoints
How to Mitigate CVE-2024-54388
Immediate Actions Required
- Deactivate and remove the Multiple Admin Emails plugin until a patched version is available
- Audit all stored plugin settings and admin email fields for injected HTML or JavaScript content
- Force a password reset for all WordPress administrator accounts and invalidate active sessions
- Restrict administrator browsing of untrusted content from workstations used to manage WordPress
Patch Information
At the time of publication, no fixed version is listed for the Multiple Admin Emails plugin. The advisory references versions n/a through 1.0 as affected without identifying a patched release. Consult the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for the latest remediation status.
Workarounds
- Remove the plugin and replace its functionality with a maintained alternative that implements WordPress nonces
- Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that blocks requests to plugin endpoints lacking a valid _wpnonce token
- Apply a strict Content Security Policy on /wp-admin/ to limit inline script execution and reduce stored XSS impact
- Use separate, hardened browsers or browser profiles for WordPress administration to limit cross-site session reuse
# Example: disable the plugin via WP-CLI on affected hosts
wp plugin deactivate multiple-admin-emails
wp plugin delete multiple-admin-emails
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
