Cyber Resilience

CVE-2024-10781

Cleantalk Spam Protection\, Antispam\, Firewall ≤ 6.45

Published
26 November 2024
Modified
12 July 2025
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.1
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.038 89th percentile
Risk Priority 69 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2024-10781 is a high-severity Improper Check or Handling of Exceptional Conditions (CWE-703) vulnerability in Cleantalk Spam Protection\, Antispam\, Firewall. Its CVSS base score is 8.1 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked in the top 11% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SC-24 (Fail in Known State) and SI-17 (Fail-safe Procedures) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

The Spam protection, Anti-Spam, FireWall by CleanTalk plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized arbitrary plugin installation in all versions through 6.44. The flaw stems from a missing empty-value check on the api_key parameter inside the perform function, allowing the plugin to process remote calls without proper validation.

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit the issue over the network to install and activate arbitrary WordPress plugins. Successful exploitation can be chained with other vulnerable plugins to obtain remote code execution on the affected site.

Public references point to a fix committed in changeset 3188546 that addresses the api_key handling, and Wordfence has published corresponding threat intelligence for the vulnerability.

EPSS scores rose from a low baseline to a peak of 0.1189 on 2025-12-11 before receding, indicating a clear post-disclosure increase in exploitation interest.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A10:2025 Mishandling of Exceptional Conditions

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

The Spam protection, Anti-Spam, FireWall by CleanTalk plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized Arbitrary Plugin Installation due to an missing empty value check on the 'api_key' value in the 'perform' function in all versions up to, and including, 6.44.…

more

This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to install and activate arbitrary plugins which can be leveraged to achieve remote code execution if another vulnerable plugin is installed and activated.

CWE(s)
CWE-703

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
attack.mitre.org →
T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
attack.mitre.org →
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
attack.mitre.org →
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
attack.mitre.org →
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
attack.mitre.org →
T1210 Exploitation of Remote Services Lateral Movement
Adversaries may exploit remote services to gain unauthorized access to internal systems once inside of a network.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-51535Same product: Cleantalk Spam Protection\, Antispam\, Firewall
CVE-2025-68135Shared CWE-703
CVE-2024-0092Shared CWE-703
CVE-2023-0004Shared CWE-703
CVE-2024-38482Shared CWE-703
CVE-2026-56338Shared CWE-703
CVE-2026-28407Shared CWE-703
CVE-2024-29205Shared CWE-703
CVE-2026-29643Shared CWE-703
CVE-2025-13022Shared CWE-703

Affected Assets

cleantalk
spam protection\, antispam\, firewall
≤ 6.45

Mitigating Controls

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SC-24 Fail in Known State good match

Enforces failure to a known state while preserving required properties, limiting impact of unhandled exceptions.

SI-17 Fail-safe Procedures good match

Mandates explicit fail-safe procedures triggered by indicated failures, structurally preventing unhandled exceptional conditions.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Requires application of security engineering principles that include robust exception and error handling during design.

SI-11 Error Handling partial match

Requires generation of safe, actionable error messages that directly addresses proper handling of exceptional conditions.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices explicitly require anticipating and correctly handling exceptional conditions during design and coding.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.6.8 Information security event reporting none match
none

Reporting of unhandled errors or exceptional conditions surfaces latent failure paths so they can be corrected before exploitation.

References