CVE-2023-6279 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting the Woostify Sites Library WordPress plugin versions prior to 1.4.8. The core issue is a missing authorization check (CWE-862) in an AJAX action handler within the plugin. This flaw allows any authenticated user, including low-privileged roles such as subscribers, to update arbitrary blog options without proper permission validation. Specifically, an attacker can set certain options to an 'activated' state, which can be exploited to cause a denial-of-service (DoS) condition when a particular option name is used. The vulnerability does not require user interaction beyond authentication, and the attack vector is remote network access (AV:N). The CVSS 3.1 base score is 7.1, reflecting high severity due to the ease of exploitation (low attack complexity), the requirement for only low privileges (PR:L), and the significant impact on availability (A:H) while confidentiality is not affected (C:N) and integrity impact is limited (I:L). No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no official patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability was published on January 29, 2024, and was assigned by WPScan. The lack of authorization in AJAX endpoints is a common security oversight in WordPress plugins, often leading to privilege escalation or unauthorized configuration changes. In this case, the ability to manipulate blog options arbitrarily can disrupt site functionality, potentially causing outages or degraded service availability.

For European organizations using WordPress sites with the Woostify Sites Library plugin, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to website availability and operational continuity. Attackers with minimal privileges (e.g., registered users or subscribers) can exploit this flaw to alter critical blog options, potentially triggering denial-of-service conditions that disrupt access to the website or its services. This can affect e-commerce platforms, corporate websites, and public-facing portals, leading to loss of customer trust, revenue impact, and reputational damage. Since WordPress is widely used across Europe, especially among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and digital agencies, the vulnerability could have broad implications. Additionally, organizations subject to regulatory requirements such as GDPR must consider the operational impact and potential service interruptions as part of their compliance obligations. Although confidentiality is not directly impacted, the integrity of site configurations is compromised, which could be leveraged in chained attacks or to facilitate further exploitation. The absence of known exploits in the wild suggests a window for proactive mitigation, but the ease of exploitation and low privilege requirement elevate the urgency for patching or mitigation.

1. Immediate upgrade: Organizations should verify if they use the Woostify Sites Library plugin and update it to version 1.4.8 or later once available, as this will likely include the necessary authorization checks to remediate the vulnerability. 2. Access control review: Restrict user roles and permissions on WordPress sites to the minimum necessary, especially limiting subscriber or low-privilege accounts from accessing AJAX endpoints or administrative functions. 3. Web application firewall (WAF): Deploy or update WAF rules to detect and block suspicious AJAX requests attempting to modify blog options, particularly those that set options to 'activated' or other unusual values. 4. Monitoring and logging: Enable detailed logging of AJAX requests and changes to blog options to detect anomalous activity indicative of exploitation attempts. 5. Disable or remove the plugin if not essential: If the Woostify Sites Library plugin is not critical, consider disabling or uninstalling it until a secure version is available. 6. Harden WordPress security: Implement security best practices such as limiting login attempts, enforcing strong authentication, and isolating administrative functions to reduce the risk of authenticated user exploitation. 7. Incident response readiness: Prepare to respond to potential DoS incidents caused by this vulnerability by having backup and recovery procedures in place to restore site availability quickly.