CVE-2024-9215Co-Authors, Multiple Authors and Guest Authors in an Author Box with PublishPress Authors <= 4.7.1 - Insecure Direct Object Reference to Authenticated (Author+) Arbitrary User Email Update and Account Takeover
- 8.8HighCVSS base score
- 0.51%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 56% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
The Co-Authors, Multiple Authors and Guest Authors in an Author Box with PublishPress Authors plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Insecure Direct Object Reference to Privilege Escalation/Account Takeover in all versions up to, and including, 4.7.1 via the action_edited_author() due to missing validation on the 'authors-user_id' user controlled key. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Author-level access and above, to update arbitrary user accounts email addresses, including administrators, which can then be leveraged to reset that user's account password and gain access.
Timeline
ID reserved
By Wordfence
- 21 days later
· 21 days later
Published
- 18 months later
· 18 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordfenceCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High8.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 3.1 | High8.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.51% · top 56% of all CVEs (15 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.8.
Affected products
References
References3
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/d0506137-82e3-4988-9b23-370465a866c0?source=cve (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/publishpress-authors/tags/4.7.1/src/core/Classes/Author_Editor.php#L594 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=3169244%40publishpress-authors&new=3169244%40publishpress-authors&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=#file7 (opens in a new tab)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2024-49797 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2024-9215)Record last updated .