The WP Abstracts plugin for WordPress, developed by kevonadonis, suffers from a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-12385. This vulnerability exists in all plugin versions up to and including 2.7.2 due to the absence of nonce validation in two critical functions: wpabstracts_load_status() and wpabstracts_delete_abstracts(). Nonce validation is a security mechanism used in WordPress to ensure that requests to perform state-changing actions originate from legitimate users and not from malicious third-party sites. Without this protection, an attacker can craft a malicious web request that, when executed by an authenticated site administrator (e.g., by clicking a link), causes unintended actions such as changing the status of abstracts or deleting abstracts within the plugin. The vulnerability does not require the attacker to be authenticated, but successful exploitation depends on social engineering to induce an administrator to perform the action. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 6.1, indicating a medium severity level. The vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N) shows that the attack is network-based, requires low attack complexity, no privileges, but does require user interaction, affects confidentiality and integrity with a scope change, and does not impact availability. There are no known exploits in the wild at this time, and no official patches have been linked yet. However, the vulnerability poses a risk to WordPress sites using this plugin, especially those managing abstracts for conferences or events, where unauthorized deletion or status changes could disrupt operations or leak sensitive information.

The primary impact of this CSRF vulnerability is unauthorized modification of abstracts data managed by the WP Abstracts plugin, potentially leading to data integrity issues such as deletion or status changes of abstracts without administrator consent. Confidentiality impact is limited but possible if malicious scripts are injected or if sensitive data is exposed through manipulated plugin functions. Availability is not affected. Organizations relying on this plugin for managing event abstracts or similar content may face operational disruptions, reputational damage, or loss of trust if unauthorized changes occur. Since exploitation requires an administrator to be tricked into clicking a malicious link, the risk is mitigated somewhat by user awareness but remains significant due to the lack of nonce validation. The vulnerability could be leveraged as part of a broader attack chain, especially in environments where administrators have elevated privileges or where the plugin integrates with other systems. The scope change in the CVSS vector indicates that the vulnerability affects resources beyond the vulnerable component, potentially impacting the entire WordPress site or its data integrity.

1. Immediate mitigation involves restricting administrative access and educating administrators about the risks of clicking untrusted links, especially those that could trigger plugin actions. 2. Implement manual nonce validation in the wpabstracts_load_status() and wpabstracts_delete_abstracts() functions by modifying the plugin code to verify WordPress nonces before processing requests. 3. Monitor web server and WordPress logs for unusual requests targeting these plugin functions to detect potential exploitation attempts. 4. Limit administrative privileges to only necessary personnel and consider using multi-factor authentication to reduce the risk of compromised admin accounts. 5. Regularly back up WordPress site data, including abstracts managed by the plugin, to enable recovery in case of unauthorized deletions or modifications. 6. Stay alert for official patches or updates from the plugin developer and apply them promptly once available. 7. Consider temporarily disabling or replacing the WP Abstracts plugin if immediate patching is not feasible, especially on high-risk sites. 8. Use web application firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block suspicious requests targeting the vulnerable plugin endpoints.