CVE-2024-13344 is a high-severity SQL Injection vulnerability affecting the Advance Seat Reservation Management for WooCommerce plugin for WordPress, developed by smartcms. This vulnerability exists in all versions up to and including version 3.3 of the plugin. The root cause is improper neutralization of special elements in SQL commands (CWE-89), specifically due to insufficient escaping and lack of prepared statements for the 'profileId' parameter. An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this flaw by injecting malicious SQL code through the 'profileId' parameter, which is directly incorporated into SQL queries without adequate sanitization. This allows the attacker to append arbitrary SQL commands to the existing query, potentially extracting sensitive data from the underlying database. The vulnerability does not require any authentication or user interaction, making it remotely exploitable over the network (AV:N, PR:N, UI:N). The CVSS v3.1 base score is 7.5, reflecting a high severity primarily due to the ability to compromise confidentiality without impacting integrity or availability. Although no known exploits are currently reported in the wild, the ease of exploitation and the critical nature of the data handled by WooCommerce plugins make this a significant threat. The plugin is widely used in e-commerce environments to manage seat reservations, which often involve customer personal data and transaction details, increasing the risk associated with data leakage through this vulnerability.

For European organizations using WordPress with the Advance Seat Reservation Management for WooCommerce plugin, this vulnerability poses a substantial risk to the confidentiality of sensitive customer and business data. Exploitation could lead to unauthorized disclosure of personal identifiable information (PII), payment details, and reservation records, potentially violating GDPR requirements and resulting in regulatory penalties. The breach of customer trust and potential financial losses from data exposure or subsequent fraud could be severe. Additionally, the extracted data could be used for further targeted attacks or identity theft. Since the vulnerability does not affect integrity or availability directly, operational disruption may be limited; however, the reputational damage and compliance risks are significant. Organizations in sectors such as travel, event management, and hospitality that rely on seat reservation systems integrated with WooCommerce are particularly vulnerable. The lack of authentication requirement means attackers can exploit this remotely without prior access, increasing the attack surface and urgency for mitigation.

1. Immediate upgrade or patching: Organizations should monitor for an official patch or update from smartcms addressing this vulnerability and apply it promptly. 2. Temporary WAF rules: Deploy Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block suspicious SQL injection patterns targeting the 'profileId' parameter. Custom rules can be created to filter out SQL meta-characters and typical injection payloads. 3. Input validation and sanitization: Implement additional server-side input validation to reject or sanitize unexpected characters in the 'profileId' parameter until an official fix is applied. 4. Database user permissions: Restrict the database user permissions used by the plugin to the minimum necessary, ideally read-only access where possible, to limit data exposure in case of exploitation. 5. Monitoring and logging: Enable detailed logging of web requests and database queries to detect anomalous activities indicative of SQL injection attempts. 6. Segmentation and backups: Ensure that the database and web servers are properly segmented and that regular backups are maintained to facilitate recovery if exploitation occurs. 7. Security awareness: Inform development and security teams about the vulnerability to avoid introducing similar issues in custom code or other plugins.