CVE-2024-12860 in CarSpot Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 02/18/2025
The CarSpot – Dealership Wordpress Classified Theme theme for WordPress is vulnerable to privilege escalation via account takeover in all versions up to, and including, 2.4.3. This is due to the plugin not properly validating a token prior to updating a user's password. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to change arbitrary user's passwords, including administrators, and leverage that to gain access to their account.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/18/2025
The CarSpot WordPress theme represents a critical vulnerability in the automotive dealership website ecosystem where attackers can exploit a privilege escalation flaw through account takeover mechanisms. This vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 2.4.3, making it a widespread concern for WordPress site administrators who rely on this classified theme for their online vehicle listings and dealer management systems. The core issue lies in the theme's inadequate token validation process during password update operations, creating a pathway for malicious actors to manipulate user authentication states without proper authorization.
The technical flaw manifests through improper token validation that should occur before any password modification requests are processed. When a user attempts to reset or update their password, the theme fails to adequately verify the authenticity of the token presented during the process. This validation gap allows unauthenticated attackers to craft malicious requests using forged tokens or by exploiting predictable token generation mechanisms. The vulnerability specifically targets the password update endpoint where legitimate token validation should occur, but instead accepts requests with insufficient or invalid authentication credentials, enabling unauthorized modifications to user account credentials.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access as it provides attackers with the ability to compromise administrator accounts and gain full control over dealership websites. Once an attacker successfully changes an administrator's password, they can access sensitive dealership information including vehicle inventories, customer data, contact details, and administrative settings that control the entire website functionality. This privilege escalation capability transforms a simple account takeover into a complete system compromise, potentially leading to data breaches, unauthorized website modifications, and the potential for further attacks on connected systems or users within the dealership network.
Security practitioners should immediately implement mitigations including patching to the latest theme versions where this vulnerability has been addressed, implementing strong token generation and validation mechanisms, and monitoring for suspicious password reset activities. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-287 which addresses improper authentication issues and relates to ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1531 for account access removal. Organizations should also consider implementing additional security controls such as rate limiting for password reset requests, enhanced logging of authentication activities, and multi-factor authentication for administrative accounts to reduce the attack surface and provide defense in depth against similar privilege escalation vectors that may exist in other WordPress themes or plugins.