CVE-2024-56018
Published: 02 January 2025
Summary
CVE-2024-56018 is a high-severity Cross-site Scripting (CWE-79) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique JavaScript (T1059.007); ranked at the 34.4th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); 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-15 (Information Output Filtering).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2024-56018 is an Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation vulnerability, enabling Reflected Cross-site Scripting (XSS) as classified under CWE-79. It affects the BU Section Editing WordPress plugin developed by BU Web Team (bu-section-editing), with all versions from n/a through 0.9.9 vulnerable. Published on 2025-01-02, the issue carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L).
An unauthenticated attacker (PR:N) can exploit this over the network (AV:N) with low complexity (AC:L) by tricking a victim user into interacting with a malicious payload (UI:R), such as clicking a crafted link or submitting tainted input. Successful exploitation reflects and executes arbitrary JavaScript in the victim's browser context within the site's origin, with changed scope (S:C) allowing potential theft of session data, cookies, or other sensitive information, alongside low impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:L/I:L/A:L).
The Patchstack advisory (https://patchstack.com/database/Wordpress/Plugin/bu-section-editing/vulnerability/wordpress-bu-section-editing-plugin-0-9-9-reflected-cross-site-scripting-xss-vulnerability?_s_id=cve) documents the Reflected XSS in the BU Section Editing plugin up to version 0.9.9, recommending mitigation through updating to a non-vulnerable version.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-52916
Vulnerability details
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in BU Web Team BU Section Editing bu-section-editing allows Reflected XSS.This issue affects BU Section Editing: from n/a through <= 0.9.9.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Reflected XSS directly enables arbitrary JavaScript execution in victim browser (T1059.007) and facilitates browser session hijacking via stolen cookies/session data (T1185).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly mitigates the reflected XSS flaw in the BU Section Editing WordPress plugin by requiring timely remediation through patching to a non-vulnerable version.
Prevents exploitation of the improper input neutralization by enforcing validation of user inputs to the plugin, blocking malicious JavaScript payloads.
Addresses the core issue of reflected XSS by filtering and encoding information outputs during web page generation to prevent script execution.