CVE-2024-56206: gap-hub-user-role CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2024-56206 Overview

CVE-2024-56206 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the gap-hub-user-role WordPress plugin by krishankakkar. The flaw affects all versions up to and including 3.4.1. Attackers can exploit this issue to perform authentication bypass actions on behalf of authenticated users without their consent. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-352 and stems from missing or improperly validated anti-CSRF tokens on sensitive plugin endpoints. Successful exploitation requires user interaction, such as tricking a logged-in administrator into visiting a malicious page.

Critical Impact
Successful exploitation allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to bypass authentication controls and perform privileged actions in the context of a victim user, impacting confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the WordPress site.

Affected Products

krishankakkar gap-hub-user-role WordPress plugin
All versions from initial release through 3.4.1
WordPress installations using vulnerable plugin builds

Discovery Timeline

2024-12-31 - CVE CVE-2024-56206 published to NVD
2026-04-23 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2024-56206

Vulnerability Analysis

The gap-hub-user-role plugin fails to enforce anti-CSRF protections on state-changing requests tied to user role management. WordPress plugins typically rely on nonces generated via wp_nonce_field() and validated through check_admin_referer() or wp_verify_nonce(). When these checks are missing or improperly implemented, the application cannot distinguish between requests intentionally initiated by a user and those forged by an attacker.

This weakness leads to broken authentication. An attacker who lures a logged-in administrator to a crafted external page can trigger requests against the plugin's endpoints. Those requests inherit the victim's session cookies and execute privileged operations server-side. The flaw is network-exploitable and requires user interaction but no prior authentication on the attacker's side.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing CSRF token validation on privileged plugin actions. The plugin trusts session cookies alone to authorize state-changing operations, omitting cryptographic request validation required by the WordPress Plugin Handbook.

Attack Vector

An attacker hosts an HTML page or injects content into a page that issues an automatic POST or GET request to the vulnerable plugin endpoint. When a logged-in WordPress administrator visits the page, the browser submits the forged request with valid authentication cookies. The plugin processes the request as legitimate, enabling authentication bypass and role manipulation.

No verified public proof-of-concept code is available. Refer to the Patchstack advisory for technical disclosure details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2024-56206

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected changes to WordPress user roles or capabilities not tied to administrator-initiated sessions
HTTP Referer headers pointing to external domains on requests to plugin admin endpoints
New or modified accounts in wp_users and wp_usermeta tables without corresponding audit log entries
POST requests to plugin handlers lacking a valid _wpnonce parameter

Detection Strategies

Inspect web server access logs for cross-origin requests targeting gap-hub-user-role plugin endpoints
Correlate WordPress audit logs with browser session activity to identify unattended privilege changes
Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule set that flags missing nonce parameters on plugin admin actions

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable verbose logging in WordPress for role and capability changes via plugins like WP Activity Log
Monitor outbound traffic from administrator workstations for connections to untrusted domains preceding role changes
Alert on HTTP requests to /wp-admin/admin-post.php and /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with anomalous Referer headers

How to Mitigate CVE-2024-56206

Immediate Actions Required

Deactivate the gap-hub-user-role plugin until a vendor patch is verified and installed
Audit all WordPress user accounts for unauthorized role escalations or new administrator entries
Force a password reset and session invalidation for all administrative users
Restrict /wp-admin access by IP address where feasible

Patch Information

At the time of NVD publication, the advisory indicates the vulnerability affects all versions through 3.4.1. No fixed version is referenced in the available data. Monitor the Patchstack vulnerability database entry for patch release information.

Workarounds

Remove the plugin if a patched version is not yet available
Apply WAF rules that enforce Origin and Referer header validation on WordPress admin endpoints
Train administrators to log out of WordPress sessions before browsing untrusted sites
Use browser isolation or dedicated administrative browsers to limit cross-site request exposure

bash

# Example WAF rule pattern to block cross-origin POSTs to WordPress admin endpoints
# (ModSecurity-style pseudo-rule)
SecRule REQUEST_METHOD "@streq POST" \
  "chain,deny,status:403,id:1000001,msg:'Block cross-origin WP admin POST'"
SecRule REQUEST_URI "@beginsWith /wp-admin/" "chain"
SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:Referer "!@beginsWith https://your-site.example/"