CVE-2024-1053 is an access control vulnerability identified in the Event Tickets and Registration plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 5.8.1. The root cause is a missing capability check on the 'email' action, which allows authenticated users with contributor-level privileges or higher to send the attendees list to themselves via email. This flaw violates the principle of least privilege by enabling unauthorized data access without requiring higher administrative rights. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-284 (Improper Access Control), indicating a failure to properly restrict access to sensitive functionality. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 4.3 (medium), reflecting that the attack vector is network-based (AV:N), requires low attack complexity (AC:L), and privileges at the contributor level (PR:L), but does not require user interaction (UI:N). The impact is limited to confidentiality (C:L) with no effect on integrity or availability. No patches were linked at the time of reporting, and no known exploits have been observed in the wild. This vulnerability could be leveraged by malicious insiders or compromised contributor accounts to exfiltrate attendee data, potentially violating privacy regulations and damaging organizational reputation.

The primary impact of CVE-2024-1053 is unauthorized disclosure of attendee information, which can include personally identifiable information (PII) or other sensitive data collected during event registration. Organizations using the affected plugin risk data leakage if an attacker with contributor-level access exploits this vulnerability. This could lead to privacy violations, regulatory non-compliance (e.g., GDPR, CCPA), and reputational damage. Although the vulnerability does not affect data integrity or system availability, the confidentiality breach can facilitate further social engineering or phishing attacks targeting attendees. The scope includes any WordPress site running the vulnerable versions of the Event Tickets and Registration plugin, which is widely used by event organizers globally. The ease of exploitation is relatively low due to the requirement for authenticated contributor-level access, but such access is common in multi-author WordPress environments, increasing the risk. No evidence of active exploitation reduces immediate urgency but does not eliminate risk.

To mitigate CVE-2024-1053, organizations should immediately upgrade the Event Tickets and Registration plugin to a version where the vulnerability is patched once available. In the absence of an official patch, administrators should restrict contributor-level user permissions by auditing and minimizing the number of users with such access. Implementing strict role-based access control (RBAC) policies can limit exposure. Additionally, monitoring and logging email actions related to attendee data can help detect suspicious activity. Employing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with custom rules to block unauthorized 'email' action requests may provide temporary protection. Regularly reviewing user accounts for suspicious or unnecessary contributors and enforcing strong authentication mechanisms (e.g., MFA) will reduce the risk of account compromise. Finally, organizations should inform stakeholders and attendees about potential data exposure and prepare incident response plans accordingly.