CVE-2023-37999
Published: 17 May 2024
Summary
CVE-2023-37999 is a critical-severity Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269) vulnerability in Hasthemes Ht Mega. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, ranked in the top 2.0% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
CVE-2023-37999 is an improper privilege management flaw, tracked under CWE-269, that permits privilege escalation in the HT Mega plugin for Elementor. The vulnerability affects all versions of the WordPress plugin from the initial release through 2.2.0 and carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.8.
Unauthenticated attackers with network access can exploit the issue without credentials or user interaction. Successful exploitation grants full control over confidentiality, integrity, and availability on the affected site, enabling an attacker to create administrative accounts or perform other privileged actions.
Public references published by Patchstack document the flaw as an unauthenticated privilege-escalation vulnerability in HT Mega and provide technical details for defenders. The current EPSS score of 0.5198, with a recorded peak of 0.6174, indicates sustained exploitation interest following disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-41826
Vulnerability details
Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in HasThemes HT Mega allows Privilege Escalation.This issue affects HT Mega: from n/a through 2.2.0.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Policy addresses roles, responsibilities, and privilege management to prevent improper privilege assignments.
Access supervision ensures privileges are assigned and managed without improper escalation or retention.
Assigning group/role memberships and access authorizations (privileges) while reviewing accounts addresses improper privilege management.
Enforces proper privilege management by requiring all decisions through the verified reference monitor.
By mandating division of duties across roles, the control enforces proper privilege management and prevents a single entity from controlling an entire sensitive process.
Implements core proper privilege management by restricting to only required rights.
Policy requires training on privilege management and least privilege, making it harder to exploit improper privilege management weaknesses.
Training covers proper privilege management practices, making incorrect privilege assignments less likely.