The School Management System – SakolaWP plugin for WordPress, widely used for managing educational institutions, contains a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-13647. This vulnerability exists in all versions up to and including 1.0.8 due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on the 'save_exam_setting' and 'delete_exam_setting' actions. Nonces in WordPress are security tokens used to verify that requests originate from legitimate users and prevent unauthorized actions. The absence or improper implementation of nonce checks allows an attacker to craft a malicious request that, when executed by an authenticated administrator (e.g., by clicking a link), can modify exam settings without the administrator’s intent or knowledge. This attack does not require the attacker to be authenticated themselves but relies on social engineering to induce the administrator to perform the action. The vulnerability impacts the integrity of the system by allowing unauthorized changes to exam configurations, which could disrupt academic processes or enable further exploitation. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 4.3 (medium severity), reflecting that the attack vector is network-based, requires no privileges, but does require user interaction, and impacts integrity only. No known exploits have been reported in the wild at this time. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper nonce validation in WordPress plugins, especially those managing critical educational data. Until a patch is released, administrators should be cautious of unsolicited links and consider additional monitoring or access restrictions.

The primary impact of CVE-2024-13647 is on the integrity of exam settings within the affected School Management System – SakolaWP plugin. Unauthorized modification of exam configurations can lead to incorrect exam schedules, altered grading parameters, or deletion of exam settings, potentially causing operational disruptions in educational institutions. While confidentiality and availability are not directly impacted, the integrity breach could undermine trust in the system and cause administrative overhead to detect and correct unauthorized changes. Attackers exploiting this vulnerability do not require authentication but do depend on social engineering to trick administrators, which may limit widespread exploitation but still poses a significant risk. Organizations relying on this plugin for managing exams could face reputational damage, compliance issues, and operational delays if the vulnerability is exploited. The lack of known exploits in the wild reduces immediate risk but does not eliminate the threat, especially as public disclosure may prompt attackers to develop exploits. The vulnerability is particularly concerning for institutions with large numbers of administrators or less security awareness, increasing the likelihood of successful social engineering.

To mitigate CVE-2024-13647, organizations should take the following specific actions: 1) Immediately audit the current version of the SakolaWP plugin in use and check for any available updates or patches from the vendor addressing nonce validation. 2) If no patch is available, implement manual nonce validation on the 'save_exam_setting' and 'delete_exam_setting' actions by modifying the plugin code to verify nonces before processing requests. 3) Educate and train site administrators to recognize and avoid clicking on suspicious or unsolicited links, especially those that could trigger administrative actions. 4) Restrict administrative access to trusted networks or use multi-factor authentication to reduce the risk of compromised admin accounts. 5) Monitor web server and application logs for unusual POST requests targeting the vulnerable actions to detect potential exploitation attempts. 6) Consider deploying a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with rules to detect and block CSRF attack patterns related to these plugin endpoints. 7) Regularly back up configuration and exam data to enable recovery in case of unauthorized changes. 8) Engage with the plugin vendor or community to encourage timely patch releases and share threat intelligence.