CVE-2024-54432 Overview
CVE-2024-54432 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability [CWE-352] in the WP Flipkart Importer WordPress plugin by Shambhu Patnaik. The flaw affects all versions up to and including 1.4. An attacker can chain the CSRF weakness with a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) sink to persist malicious JavaScript inside the WordPress administration interface.
Critical Impact
An unauthenticated attacker can trick an authenticated administrator into submitting a forged request that stores attacker-controlled JavaScript in the plugin's configuration, leading to script execution in the context of any user who views the affected page.
Affected Products
- WP Flipkart Importer plugin (wp-flipkart-importer) versions up to and including 1.4
- WordPress sites running the vulnerable plugin
- Administrator sessions interacting with the plugin's settings interface
Discovery Timeline
- 2024-12-16 - CVE-2024-54432 published to the National Vulnerability Database
- 2026-04-23 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2024-54432
Vulnerability Analysis
The vulnerability combines two weaknesses in the WP Flipkart Importer plugin. First, the plugin's state-changing endpoints do not validate WordPress nonces or any anti-CSRF token. Second, input submitted through those endpoints is rendered without proper output encoding, producing a Stored XSS sink. The combination allows an external attacker to persist malicious JavaScript by abusing the trust the browser places in an administrator session.
Successful exploitation requires user interaction, since the victim administrator must visit an attacker-controlled page while authenticated to WordPress. Because the injected payload is stored, it executes whenever a privileged user loads the affected admin view. This enables session theft, administrative account takeover, and downstream actions such as plugin installation or arbitrary content modification.
Root Cause
The root cause is missing CSRF protection on plugin form handlers. WordPress provides the wp_nonce_field() and check_admin_referer() functions for this purpose, but the plugin does not enforce them on the affected handlers. The same handlers also fail to sanitize input using functions such as sanitize_text_field() or to escape output using esc_attr() and esc_html(), allowing scripts to be stored and rendered verbatim.
Attack Vector
The attack vector is network-based and requires user interaction. An attacker hosts a malicious page containing an auto-submitting form or an XMLHttpRequest targeting the vulnerable plugin endpoint. When an authenticated WordPress administrator visits the page, the browser submits the forged request with valid session cookies. The plugin accepts the request, stores the attacker's payload, and renders it the next time the admin page loads, completing the CSRF-to-Stored-XSS chain. Refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for additional technical context.
Detection Methods for CVE-2024-54432
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected <script>, onerror, or onload strings stored in WP Flipkart Importer plugin options within the wp_options table
- WordPress admin sessions exhibiting outbound requests to unfamiliar domains shortly after loading plugin configuration pages
- New administrator accounts or modified user roles created without a corresponding audit log entry
- HTTP referer headers pointing to external domains on POST requests to wp-admin endpoints associated with the plugin
Detection Strategies
- Inspect plugin-related rows in wp_options for HTML or JavaScript content that should contain plain text or configuration values
- Review web server access logs for POST requests to plugin admin pages lacking a valid same-origin referer
- Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that flags requests to wp-admin containing script tags or event handler attributes in body parameters
Monitoring Recommendations
- Enable WordPress audit logging to capture changes to plugin settings and administrator accounts
- Forward WordPress and web server logs to a centralized analytics platform and alert on anomalous admin POST traffic
- Monitor browser-side Content Security Policy (CSP) violation reports for blocked inline script execution on admin pages
How to Mitigate CVE-2024-54432
Immediate Actions Required
- Deactivate and remove the WP Flipkart Importer plugin until a patched release is published by the maintainer
- Audit all administrator accounts and rotate passwords for users who accessed the plugin while it was vulnerable
- Invalidate active WordPress sessions by rotating authentication keys and salts in wp-config.php
- Review the wp_options table for stored payloads and remove any malicious entries
Patch Information
No fixed version is referenced in the available advisory. WP Flipkart Importer is affected through version 1.4 with no listed patched release. Monitor the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for vendor updates.
Workarounds
- Remove the plugin from production sites and replace its functionality with an actively maintained alternative
- Restrict access to /wp-admin/ by IP allowlisting or VPN to reduce the chance of an administrator browsing untrusted sites while logged in
- Apply a virtual patch at the WAF layer that requires a valid WordPress nonce on plugin admin requests and blocks payloads containing HTML script constructs
- Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline scripts in the WordPress admin interface
# Configuration example: remove the vulnerable plugin via WP-CLI
wp plugin deactivate wp-flipkart-importer
wp plugin delete wp-flipkart-importer
# Rotate WordPress salts to invalidate existing admin sessions
wp config shuffle-salts
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
