CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2024-2172 — Malware Scanner plugin and the Web Application Firewall security vulnerability
The Malware Scanner plugin and the Web Application Firewall plugin for WordPress (both by MiniOrange) are vulnerable to privilege escalation due to a missing capability check on the mo_wpns_init() function in all versions up to, and including, 4.7.2 (for Malware Scanner) and 2.1.1 (for Web Application Firewall). This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to escalate their privileges to that of an administrator.
- Severity
- Critical
- CVSS
- 9.8 (3.1)
- Published
- 2024-03-13
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- php/wordpress
- Weaknesses
- CWE-304
Affected products
No browser-safe affected-product rows are available.
Matched remediation archetype
Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management
This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.
Check exposure
- Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
- Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
- Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.
Remediate safely
- Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
- Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
- Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.
Authoritative sources
Complete CVE record and remediation plan
The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.