CVE-2024-13718 is a medium-severity CSRF vulnerability identified in the Flexible Wishlist for WooCommerce – Ecommerce Wishlist & Save for later plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 1.2.26. The root cause is the absence or improper implementation of nonce validation on several plugin functions, which are intended to protect against unauthorized state-changing requests. Nonces in WordPress are security tokens used to verify that requests originate from legitimate users and not from malicious third parties. Due to this flaw, an attacker can craft a malicious web request that, if an authenticated site administrator or user with sufficient privileges clicks on it, will execute actions such as modifying, updating, or creating wishlist entries on behalf of other users without their knowledge or consent. This attack vector exploits the trust between the user's browser and the web application, leveraging the victim's authenticated session. The vulnerability does not require the attacker to be authenticated and only requires user interaction, specifically the victim clicking a crafted link or visiting a malicious webpage. The impact is limited to the integrity of wishlist data; confidentiality and availability are not affected. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N) reflects network attack vector, low attack complexity, no privileges required, user interaction required, unchanged scope, no confidentiality or availability impact, and limited integrity impact. No patches or exploit code are currently publicly available, but the vulnerability is published and should be addressed promptly by site administrators. Given the popularity of WooCommerce and WordPress, this vulnerability could be leveraged in targeted attacks against ecommerce platforms to manipulate user wishlists, potentially affecting customer experience and trust.

The primary impact of CVE-2024-13718 is unauthorized modification of user wishlist data on affected ecommerce sites using the vulnerable plugin. While this does not compromise sensitive personal or payment information, it undermines data integrity and could disrupt user experience by altering or corrupting wishlist contents. Attackers could exploit this to manipulate product interest data, potentially skewing business analytics or customer engagement metrics. In some scenarios, attackers might use this as part of a broader attack chain, such as social engineering or phishing campaigns targeting site administrators. Although the vulnerability does not affect system availability or confidentiality, the integrity compromise could erode customer trust and damage brand reputation. For organizations relying heavily on WooCommerce wishlists for marketing or sales strategies, this could have indirect financial consequences. The requirement for user interaction and the need to trick an admin into clicking a malicious link somewhat limits the exploitability, but the risk remains significant for high-value ecommerce sites with active administrative users.

To mitigate CVE-2024-13718, organizations should first verify if they are using the Flexible Wishlist for WooCommerce – Ecommerce Wishlist & Save for later plugin and identify the version in use. Since no official patch links are currently available, administrators should monitor the vendor’s updates and apply patches immediately once released. In the interim, consider disabling or removing the plugin if wishlist functionality is non-critical. Implementing Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block suspicious CSRF attempts targeting wishlist-related endpoints can reduce risk. Educate site administrators about the dangers of clicking untrusted links, especially when logged into the WordPress admin panel. Enforce the principle of least privilege by limiting administrative access to trusted personnel only. Additionally, review and harden nonce validation mechanisms in custom or third-party plugins to ensure proper CSRF protections are in place. Regularly audit WordPress plugins for security compliance and keep all components updated to minimize exposure to known vulnerabilities.