CVE-2024-56005: Posti Shipping CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2024-56005 Overview

CVE-2024-56005 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting the Posti Shipping plugin for WordPress. The flaw exists in all plugin versions up to and including 3.10.3 and enables attackers to trigger unauthorized settings changes when an authenticated administrator visits a malicious page. The weakness is classified under CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery.

Critical Impact
An attacker can modify plugin settings by tricking a logged-in administrator into loading attacker-controlled content, without requiring credentials or direct authentication to the target site.

Affected Products

Posti Shipping WordPress plugin versions up to and including 3.10.3
WordPress installations with the Posti Shipping plugin activated
Sites where administrators may browse external content while authenticated

Discovery Timeline

2024-12-16 - CVE-2024-56005 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-56005

Vulnerability Analysis

The Posti Shipping plugin exposes settings-modification endpoints that do not validate the origin or authenticity of incoming state-changing requests. Because the plugin lacks proper anti-CSRF token verification, a browser session authenticated as a WordPress administrator will automatically attach session cookies to any request made to the vulnerable endpoint. An attacker who convinces an administrator to visit a crafted page can therefore trigger settings changes through the victim's browser. The impact is limited to integrity and availability of plugin configuration, with no direct exposure of confidential data. According to the Patchstack advisory, the issue affects all versions up to 3.10.3.

Root Cause

The vulnerability stems from missing or improperly implemented CSRF protection on privileged plugin actions. WordPress provides nonce primitives such as wp_nonce_field() and check_admin_referer() for exactly this purpose. When settings handlers omit these checks, the server accepts any well-formed request that carries a valid administrator session cookie, regardless of the request's origin.

Attack Vector

Exploitation is remote and requires no authentication on the attacker's side. The attacker hosts a page containing an auto-submitting HTML form or JavaScript that issues a POST request to the vulnerable Posti Shipping settings endpoint. When a signed-in WordPress administrator loads that page, the browser transmits the request with valid session cookies, and the plugin processes the settings change as if the administrator had initiated it. Refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for endpoint-level technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-56005

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected changes to Posti Shipping plugin configuration values, including API keys, shipping options, or account bindings
HTTP POST requests to plugin settings endpoints with Referer headers pointing to external domains
Administrator sessions producing plugin configuration writes shortly after visiting untrusted URLs
Absence of expected WordPress nonce parameters (_wpnonce, _wp_http_referer) in successful settings-change requests

Detection Strategies

Review WordPress audit logs for plugin option changes correlated with administrator browsing activity
Inspect web server access logs for POST requests to Posti Shipping admin endpoints with cross-origin Referer values
Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that flags state-changing requests to wp-admin lacking a valid same-origin Referer or nonce

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable a WordPress activity logging plugin to capture option and settings modifications with user attribution
Alert on modifications to Posti Shipping settings outside of change windows or from unusual administrator sessions
Monitor outbound shipping API traffic for anomalies that would indicate a modified plugin configuration

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-56005

Immediate Actions Required

Update the Posti Shipping plugin to a version later than 3.10.3 as soon as a fixed release is available from the vendor
Audit current plugin settings and restore known-good values if tampering is suspected
Require administrators to log out of WordPress before browsing untrusted sites

Patch Information

Refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for the vendor-supplied fixed version. Apply the update through the WordPress plugin management interface or via WP-CLI, then verify the installed version is above 3.10.3.

Workarounds

Deactivate the Posti Shipping plugin until a patched version is installed if it is not in active use
Restrict access to /wp-admin/ by source IP through the web server or WAF to reduce cross-origin attack surface
Enforce SameSite=Lax or SameSite=Strict cookie attributes for WordPress session cookies where compatible
Require re-authentication for administrator sessions after short idle periods to shrink the CSRF exposure window

bash

# Configuration example: verify installed plugin version and update via WP-CLI
wp plugin get posti-shipping --field=version
wp plugin update posti-shipping
wp plugin get posti-shipping --field=version