CVE-2024-9636

Critical

Published: 15 January 2025

Published

15 January 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 0.0076 73.4th percentile

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

Summary

CVE-2024-9636 is a critical-severity Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269) vulnerability in Wordpress (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 26.6% 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-2 (Account Management) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) and 1 other technique. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

AC-2 Account Management good match

prevent

AC-2 ensures proper management of account creation and privilege assignment during registration, directly preventing unauthorized administrator role escalation.

AC-6 Least Privilege good match

prevent

AC-6 enforces least privilege principles, blocking attackers from gaining excessive administrator privileges via manipulated user meta during registration.

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

prevent

AC-3 requires enforcement of access control policies, mitigating the failure to restrict updates to sensitive user meta fields like roles in the plugin's registration process.

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 →

T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation

Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

Direct remote unauthenticated exploitation of public-facing WordPress plugin for privilege escalation to admin via improper user meta/role handling.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v18.1

NVD Description

The Post Grid and Gutenberg Blocks plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation in versions 2.2.85 to 2.3.3. This is due to the plugin not properly restricting what user meta can be updated during profile registration. This makes it…

possible for unauthenticated attackers to register on the site as an administrator.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2024-9636 is a privilege escalation vulnerability affecting the Post Grid and Gutenberg Blocks plugin for WordPress, specifically in versions 2.2.85 through 2.3.3. The issue stems from the plugin failing to properly restrict which user meta fields can be updated during profile registration, allowing attackers to manipulate their user role to administrator level upon registration.

Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this vulnerability remotely over the network with low complexity, requiring no privileges or user interaction, as indicated by its CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H) and association with CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management). By registering a new account on a vulnerable site, an attacker can immediately gain administrator privileges, enabling full control over the WordPress site, including content modification, user management, and potential further compromise.

Patches addressing this vulnerability are reflected in WordPress plugin trac changesets, such as 3117675 and 3221012 in the trunk/includes/blocks/form-wrap/functions.php file, and version 2.2.93 which modifies line 3200 in the same file to enforce proper restrictions. Additional details are available in the Wordfence threat intelligence advisory at the referenced URL.