CVE-2024-54426: LeaderBoard Plugin CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2024-54426 Overview

CVE-2024-54426 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the leaderboard-lite WordPress plugin developed by crossfitatgg. The flaw affects all versions of the LeaderBoard Plugin up to and including 1.2.4. An attacker can chain the CSRF weakness with a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) payload, persisting malicious JavaScript in plugin-managed content. The vulnerability is tracked under CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery and requires user interaction over the network to succeed.

Critical Impact
A successful exploit lets a remote attacker inject persistent JavaScript that executes in the browser of any administrator or visitor who loads the affected page, enabling session theft, content tampering, and privileged action abuse.

Affected Products

crossfitatgg LeaderBoard Plugin (leaderboard-lite) for WordPress
All versions from initial release through 1.2.4
WordPress sites with the plugin installed and an authenticated administrator session

Discovery Timeline

2024-12-16 - CVE-2024-54426 published to NVD
2026-04-23 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-54426

Vulnerability Analysis

The leaderboard-lite plugin exposes state-changing actions without validating an anti-CSRF token (nonce) on submission. An attacker hosts a malicious page that forges an HTTP request to the WordPress site. When an authenticated administrator visits the attacker-controlled page, the browser silently submits the forged request using the administrator's session cookies. The plugin then processes attacker-supplied input and stores it in the database without sanitizing HTML or JavaScript content. The injected payload executes on subsequent page loads, producing a stored XSS condition. The chain combines a CSRF primitive with persistent script injection, expanding impact beyond a single victim session.

Root Cause

The root cause is the absence of proper request origin validation in the plugin's request handlers. WordPress provides wp_nonce_field() and check_admin_referer() to mitigate CSRF, but the affected handlers fail to enforce these checks. Compounding the issue, user-controlled data is rendered without output encoding or input sanitization through functions such as esc_html(), esc_attr(), or wp_kses(). Together, these defects produce the CSRF-to-stored-XSS chain documented in the Patchstack Vulnerability Report.

Attack Vector

The attack vector is network-based and requires user interaction. An attacker crafts a webpage containing an auto-submitting form or scripted fetch request targeting the vulnerable plugin endpoint. The attacker lures a logged-in WordPress administrator to the page through phishing, a forum link, or a compromised third-party site. The victim's browser issues the cross-origin request with valid authentication cookies, and the plugin commits the attacker-supplied XSS payload to persistent storage. Any subsequent visit to a page rendering that data triggers script execution in the visitor's browser context.

No verified proof-of-concept code is published in the referenced advisory. Refer to the Patchstack advisory for additional technical context.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-54426

Indicators of Compromise

Leaderboard entries or plugin-managed fields containing <script>, onerror=, onload=, or javascript: substrings
WordPress access logs showing POST requests to leaderboard-lite admin endpoints with Referer headers pointing to external domains
Unexpected administrator account creation or option changes following an admin session visiting an untrusted URL
Outbound browser requests from administrator workstations to unfamiliar domains shortly after loading the WordPress admin dashboard

Detection Strategies

Query the WordPress database for plugin-related rows in wp_options and custom plugin tables matching HTML or JavaScript injection patterns
Inspect web server logs for cross-origin POSTs to wp-admin/admin.php or admin-post.php referencing leaderboard-lite actions without a same-origin Referer
Compare installed plugin version against the vulnerable range using wp plugin list --name=leaderboard-lite via WP-CLI

Monitoring Recommendations

Forward WordPress access logs and PHP error logs to a centralized analytics platform for correlation against known CSRF and XSS request patterns
Alert on administrator browser sessions issuing unexpected POSTs immediately after navigation to external referrers
Schedule recurring scans of plugin-rendered pages for embedded script tags and event handler attributes

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-54426

Immediate Actions Required

Audit all WordPress installations for the presence of leaderboard-lite version 1.2.4 or earlier
Deactivate and remove the plugin until a vendor-supplied patch is verified and applied
Force a password reset and re-authentication for all administrator accounts that may have visited untrusted pages while logged in
Review plugin-managed content for injected scripts and remove malicious entries from the database

Patch Information

At the time of NVD publication, no fixed version is listed in the public advisory. Monitor the Patchstack advisory and the plugin's WordPress.org listing for an updated release above 1.2.4. Apply the patch immediately once available and re-audit stored plugin data after upgrade.

Workarounds

Remove or deactivate the leaderboard-lite plugin until a fixed version is released
Restrict WordPress administrator access to a dedicated, hardened browser profile that does not visit external content
Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule blocking POST requests to plugin endpoints lacking a same-origin Referer and valid _wpnonce parameter
Enforce a strict Content Security Policy (CSP) that disallows inline scripts on the WordPress front end and admin dashboard

bash

# Identify and remove the vulnerable plugin via WP-CLI
wp plugin list --name=leaderboard-lite --fields=name,status,version
wp plugin deactivate leaderboard-lite
wp plugin uninstall leaderboard-lite

# Example nginx rule to block cross-origin POSTs to admin endpoints
location ~ ^/wp-admin/admin-post\.php$ {
    if ($http_referer !~* "^https?://your-domain\.tld/") {
        return 403;
    }
}