CVE-2024-12750 is a medium severity vulnerability identified in the Competition Form WordPress plugin, affecting versions up to 2.0. The vulnerability is classified as CWE-352, which corresponds to Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF). Specifically, the plugin lacks proper CSRF protections when updating its settings. This absence of a CSRF token or equivalent verification mechanism means that an attacker can craft a malicious request that, when executed by a logged-in administrator, could change the plugin's settings without their consent. The attack vector is remote (network-based), requires no privileges (PR:N), but does require user interaction (UI:R) in the form of the admin visiting a malicious link or page. The vulnerability impacts integrity but not confidentiality or availability, as unauthorized changes to settings could alter plugin behavior or site functionality but do not directly expose sensitive data or cause denial of service. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 4.3, reflecting a medium severity level. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches or fixes have been linked yet. The vulnerability is relevant to any WordPress site using the Competition Form plugin up to version 2.0, which is a niche but potentially impactful plugin for managing competitions or contests on websites. The lack of CSRF protection is a common web security oversight that can be mitigated by implementing nonce tokens or similar anti-CSRF mechanisms in the plugin's settings update workflow.

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability depends largely on the presence and usage of the Competition Form plugin on their WordPress sites. Organizations using this plugin to manage competitions or user engagement could face unauthorized changes to their plugin settings if an attacker successfully executes a CSRF attack. This could lead to altered contest rules, manipulated entry data, or other integrity issues that may damage the organization's reputation or user trust. While the vulnerability does not directly expose sensitive data or cause service outages, unauthorized configuration changes could indirectly facilitate further attacks or disrupt normal operations. Given the medium severity and the requirement for an admin to be logged in and interact with a malicious link, the risk is moderate but should not be ignored. European organizations with public-facing WordPress sites that engage users via competitions or promotions are the most likely to be impacted. Additionally, regulatory frameworks such as GDPR emphasize the importance of maintaining data integrity and security, so any compromise of site functionality or user trust could have compliance implications.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should first identify if they are using the Competition Form plugin up to version 2.0. If so, they should monitor for official patches or updates from the plugin developer and apply them promptly once available. In the absence of an official patch, organizations can implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block suspicious POST requests targeting the plugin's settings endpoints, especially those lacking valid CSRF tokens. Administrators should be educated to avoid clicking on untrusted links while logged into WordPress admin panels. Additionally, implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) for WordPress admin accounts can reduce the risk of session hijacking that could facilitate CSRF exploitation. Site administrators can also consider temporarily disabling or replacing the plugin with alternative solutions that follow secure coding practices. Finally, regular security audits and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to detect similar CSRF issues in other plugins or custom code.