CVE-2024-13410
Published: 19 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2024-13410 is a critical-severity Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502) vulnerability in Themeforest (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 31.9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2024-13410 is a PHP Object Injection vulnerability affecting the CozyStay and TinySalt plugins for WordPress. It arises from deserialization of untrusted input in the ajax_handler function, impacting all versions up to and including 1.7.0 for CozyStay and 3.9.0 for TinySalt. This flaw, classified under CWE-502 (Deserialization of Untrusted Data), carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8, reflecting its critical severity due to network accessibility and low complexity.
Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely without privileges or user interaction. They can inject a PHP Object via the vulnerable endpoint, but the vulnerability has no direct impact because no known Property-Oriented Programming (POP) chain exists within the affected plugins. Exploitation requires a separate plugin or theme on the target site that provides a POP chain, potentially enabling actions such as deleting arbitrary files, retrieving sensitive data, or executing arbitrary code, depending on the chain's capabilities.
Advisories and changelogs from ThemeForest for both plugins, along with the Wordfence threat intelligence report, provide details on mitigation. Security practitioners should update CozyStay and TinySalt to versions beyond 1.7.0 and 3.9.0, respectively, where the deserialization issue has been addressed, as indicated in the referenced changelogs.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-54104
Vulnerability details
The CozyStay and TinySalt plugins for WordPress are vulnerable to PHP Object Injection in all versions up to, and including, 1.7.0, and in all versions up to, and including 3.9.0, respectively, via deserialization of untrusted input in the 'ajax_handler' function.…
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This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject a PHP Object. No known POP chain is present in the vulnerable software, which means this vulnerability has no impact unless another plugin or theme containing a POP chain is installed on the site. If a POP chain is present via an additional plugin or theme installed on the target system, it may allow the attacker to perform actions like delete arbitrary files, retrieve sensitive data, or execute code depending on the POP chain present.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
The CVE describes a remote unauthenticated deserialization vulnerability in a public-facing WordPress plugin, directly enabling exploitation of public-facing applications (T1190). Potential impacts like code execution or data access require an external POP chain but do not change the core exploitation technique.
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Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Timely flaw remediation by updating CozyStay beyond 1.7.0 and TinySalt beyond 3.9.0 directly eliminates the unsafe deserialization in the ajax_handler function.
Information input validation at the ajax_handler endpoint blocks untrusted serialized PHP objects from being deserialized.
Restrictions on user-installed software prevent installation of additional plugins or themes providing POP chains required to exploit the object injection.