The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-13423 affects the Sparkling WordPress theme developed by silkalns, specifically versions up to and including 2.4.9. The issue stems from missing authorization checks in the 'sparkling_activate_plugin' and 'sparkling_deactivate_plugin' functions. These functions are intended to manage the activation and deactivation of WordPress plugins but fail to verify whether the requester has the necessary permissions to perform these actions. As a result, an unauthenticated attacker can remotely invoke these functions to activate or deactivate arbitrary plugins on the affected WordPress site. This unauthorized manipulation can lead to the enabling of malicious plugins or disabling of security-related plugins, thereby compromising the integrity of the site’s plugin ecosystem. The vulnerability does not expose confidential data directly nor does it cause denial of service, but it undermines the trustworthiness and expected behavior of the WordPress installation. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.3 reflects the network attack vector, low attack complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction, and impact limited to integrity. No patches have been officially released at the time of this report, and no known exploits have been observed in the wild. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-862 (Missing Authorization), a common issue where functions fail to enforce proper access controls. Given WordPress’s widespread use globally and the popularity of the Sparkling theme among small and medium websites, this vulnerability presents a significant risk if left unmitigated.

The primary impact of CVE-2024-13423 is the unauthorized modification of plugin states on affected WordPress sites. Attackers can activate malicious plugins that could introduce backdoors, malware, or other harmful functionality, or deactivate security plugins that protect the site from other threats. This compromises the integrity of the website’s software environment and can lead to further exploitation, data manipulation, or persistent access. While confidentiality and availability are not directly affected by this vulnerability, the indirect consequences of enabling malicious plugins can escalate to data breaches or service disruptions. Organizations relying on the Sparkling theme for their WordPress sites, especially those without additional security layers or monitoring, are at risk of unauthorized site modifications. The ease of exploitation without authentication and user interaction increases the threat level, potentially allowing automated attacks at scale. The lack of known exploits in the wild currently limits immediate widespread impact, but the vulnerability remains a significant risk vector for targeted or opportunistic attackers.

1. Immediately update the Sparkling theme to a version that includes proper authorization checks once a patch is released by the vendor. 2. Until an official patch is available, implement custom code to enforce capability checks on the 'sparkling_activate_plugin' and 'sparkling_deactivate_plugin' functions, ensuring only authorized users (e.g., administrators) can invoke these actions. 3. Restrict access to WordPress administrative endpoints via web application firewalls (WAFs) or IP whitelisting to reduce exposure to unauthenticated requests. 4. Monitor plugin activation and deactivation logs closely for unusual activity to detect potential exploitation attempts early. 5. Employ security plugins that can alert or block unauthorized changes to plugin states. 6. Regularly back up WordPress sites and maintain an incident response plan to quickly restore integrity if unauthorized changes occur. 7. Educate site administrators about the risks of unauthorized plugin management and encourage strong administrative credential policies. 8. Consider disabling plugin management via theme functions if not required, or replacing the Sparkling theme with a more secure alternative if timely patches are not forthcoming.