CVE-2024-12279 is a medium-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified in the WP Social AutoConnect plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 4.6.2. The vulnerability stems from missing or incorrect nonce validation in a critical function of the plugin, which is intended to protect against unauthorized requests. Nonces in WordPress are security tokens used to verify that requests originate from legitimate users and not from malicious third parties. Due to the absence or improper implementation of nonce checks, an attacker can craft a malicious web request that, when executed by an authenticated site administrator (via clicking a link or visiting a crafted webpage), causes the administrator's browser to perform unintended actions on the vulnerable WordPress site. This can lead to injection of malicious web scripts or unauthorized changes, impacting the confidentiality and integrity of the site data. The vulnerability does not affect availability and requires user interaction (administrator clicking a link). The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N) indicates network attack vector, low attack complexity, no privileges required, user interaction required, scope changed, and low impact on confidentiality and integrity. No known public exploits have been reported yet. The vulnerability was published on January 4, 2025, and assigned by Wordfence. Since the plugin is widely used in WordPress environments, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to websites relying on it for social login integration.

The primary impact of CVE-2024-12279 is unauthorized actions performed on WordPress sites using the WP Social AutoConnect plugin by tricking site administrators into executing malicious requests. This can lead to unauthorized changes to site configuration, injection of malicious scripts, or manipulation of user sessions, potentially compromising site confidentiality and integrity. Although availability is not directly affected, the integrity breach can facilitate further attacks such as privilege escalation or data leakage. Organizations with WordPress sites using this plugin are at risk of targeted attacks, especially if administrators are not trained to recognize phishing or social engineering attempts. The vulnerability could be leveraged in broader attack campaigns to compromise multiple sites, leading to reputational damage, data breaches, and loss of user trust. The lack of authentication requirements for the attacker and the low complexity of exploitation increase the threat level. However, the need for administrator interaction limits the attack scope somewhat. The absence of known exploits in the wild suggests that proactive mitigation can prevent widespread impact.

To mitigate CVE-2024-12279, organizations should immediately update the WP Social AutoConnect plugin to a version that includes proper nonce validation once available. In the absence of an official patch, site administrators can implement manual nonce checks in the plugin's vulnerable functions by adding WordPress nonce verification functions (e.g., wp_verify_nonce) to validate requests. Restrict administrative access to trusted networks or VPNs to reduce exposure to phishing attempts. Employ multi-factor authentication (MFA) for administrator accounts to limit the impact of compromised credentials. Educate administrators about the risks of clicking unsolicited links and the importance of verifying request legitimacy. Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to reduce the impact of injected scripts. Monitor web server and application logs for unusual administrative actions or suspicious requests. Consider using Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with rules to detect and block CSRF attempts targeting the plugin's endpoints. Regularly audit installed plugins and remove unused or outdated ones to reduce attack surface.