CVE-2024-13442

Critical

Published: 19 March 2025

Published

19 March 2025

Modified

15 April 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0030 53.4th percentile

Risk Priority 20 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2024-13442 is a critical-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel (CWE-288) 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 46.6% 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 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and IA-5 (Authenticator Management).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) and 2 other techniques. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

prevent

AC-3 enforces approved authorizations for access to system resources, directly preventing unauthorized profile updates and auto-logins without proper identity validation.

IA-5 Authenticator Management good match

prevent

IA-5 requires verifying user identity prior to changing authenticators like passwords, mitigating the vulnerability's arbitrary password update capability.

IA-8 Identification and Authentication (Non-organizational Users) good match

prevent

IA-8 ensures identification and authentication of non-organizational users, countering unauthenticated attackers' ability to perform account takeovers via auto-login or profile changes.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

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 →

T1078 Valid Accounts Stealth

Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.

attack.mitre.org →

T1098 Account Manipulation Persistence

Adversaries may manipulate accounts to maintain and/or elevate access to victim systems.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

Vulnerability in public-facing WordPress plugin enables unauthenticated exploitation for account takeover and password updates, directly mapping to T1190 (public-facing app exploit), T1078 (valid accounts access), and T1098 (account manipulation via password changes).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

NVD Description

The Service Finder Bookings plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation via account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 5.0. This is due to the plugin not properly validating a user's identity prior to (1) performing a…

post-booking auto-login or (2) updating their profile details (e.g. password). This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to (1) login as an arbitrary user if their email address is known or (2) change an arbitrary user's password, including administrators, and leverage that to gain access to their account.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2024-13442 is a privilege escalation vulnerability via account takeover affecting the Service Finder Bookings plugin for WordPress in all versions up to and including 5.0. The issue stems from the plugin's failure to properly validate a user's identity before performing post-booking auto-login actions or updating profile details, such as passwords. This flaw, mapped to CWE-288 and assigned a CVSS 3.1 base score of 9.8 (Critical), enables severe authentication bypass.

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability over the network with low complexity and no user interaction required. If an attacker's email address is known, they can log in as that arbitrary user; alternatively, they can update any user's password, including administrators, to gain unauthorized access to their accounts. Successful exploitation results in high impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H).

Advisories, including the Wordfence threat intelligence report, provide additional details on the vulnerability. The plugin is available via the ThemeForest marketplace at the referenced URL. No specific patch information is detailed in the available CVE data.