CVE-2024-12288 is a medium severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified in the Simple add pages or posts plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 2.0.0. The vulnerability stems from missing or incorrect nonce validation mechanisms, which are security tokens designed to verify the legitimacy of requests. Without proper nonce validation, attackers can craft malicious requests that, when executed by an authenticated site administrator (through actions such as clicking a specially crafted link), can update plugin settings or inject malicious web scripts. This attack vector does not require the attacker to be authenticated but does require user interaction, specifically targeting administrators. The vulnerability impacts the confidentiality and integrity of the affected WordPress sites by enabling unauthorized configuration changes and potential script injection, which could lead to further compromise or data leakage. The CVSS 3.1 score of 6.1 reflects a network attack vector with low attack complexity, no privileges required, but requiring user interaction and affecting confidentiality and integrity with a scope change. No patches or known exploits are currently reported, but the vulnerability is publicly disclosed and should be addressed promptly. The plugin is used within the WordPress ecosystem, which is widely adopted globally, making the vulnerability relevant to many organizations running WordPress sites that utilize this plugin. The absence of nonce validation represents a common security oversight in WordPress plugin development, emphasizing the need for secure coding practices. The vulnerability was reserved in December 2024 and published in January 2025, indicating recent discovery and disclosure.

The impact of CVE-2024-12288 is significant for organizations using the Simple add pages or posts WordPress plugin. Successful exploitation allows attackers to perform unauthorized actions by leveraging the trust relationship between the site administrator and the website. This can lead to unauthorized changes in plugin settings, potentially enabling further malicious activities such as persistent script injection, which could compromise site visitors or lead to data theft. The integrity of the website content and configuration is at risk, and confidentiality may be compromised if sensitive information is exposed through injected scripts or altered settings. Although availability is not directly impacted, the overall trustworthiness and security posture of the affected WordPress site can be severely undermined. Given WordPress's extensive use worldwide, organizations relying on this plugin for content management or site functionality face increased risk, especially if administrative users are not trained to recognize phishing or social engineering attempts. The lack of known exploits in the wild reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the potential for future attacks, especially as exploit code may be developed following public disclosure. The vulnerability's medium severity rating suggests that while the threat is serious, it requires specific conditions such as user interaction and targeting of privileged users, which somewhat limits the attack surface but still warrants prompt mitigation.

To mitigate CVE-2024-12288, organizations should first verify if they use the Simple add pages or posts plugin and update it to a version that addresses the vulnerability once available. In the absence of an official patch, administrators should implement nonce validation in the plugin code to ensure that all state-changing requests are protected against CSRF. Restricting administrative access to trusted IP addresses or using multi-factor authentication can reduce the risk of successful exploitation. Educating site administrators about the risks of clicking unsolicited links and recognizing phishing attempts is critical to prevent user interaction-based attacks. Employing Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with rules to detect and block suspicious CSRF attempts can provide an additional layer of defense. Regularly auditing plugin permissions and monitoring for unusual configuration changes or injected scripts can help detect exploitation attempts early. Backup procedures should be in place to restore site integrity if compromise occurs. Finally, developers should follow WordPress security best practices, including the use of nonces and capability checks, to prevent similar vulnerabilities in future plugin versions.