CVE-2024-30457 in Meta Data and Taxonomies Filter Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 03/29/2024
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in realmag777 WordPress Meta Data and Taxonomies Filter (MDTF).This issue affects WordPress Meta Data and Taxonomies Filter (MDTF): from n/a through 1.3.3.1.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/10/2025
The Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-30457 resides within the WordPress Meta Data and Taxonomies Filter (MDTF) plugin, specifically impacting versions ranging from n/a through 1.3.3.1. This vulnerability represents a critical security flaw that undermines the integrity of WordPress administrative functions by allowing unauthorized actions to be executed on behalf of authenticated users. The issue stems from the plugin's failure to implement proper anti-CSRF mechanisms, creating a pathway for malicious actors to exploit legitimate user sessions and perform unauthorized operations within the WordPress administration interface.
The technical flaw manifests through the absence of secure token validation mechanisms within the plugin's request handling processes. When administrators interact with the MDTF plugin's administrative features, the system should verify that requests originate from legitimate sources through the implementation of unique, unpredictable tokens that are generated for each user session. Without these protective measures, attackers can craft malicious requests that appear to come from authenticated users, leveraging the trust relationship between the user's browser and the WordPress installation to execute unauthorized modifications. This vulnerability operates under the broader category of CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in web applications.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data modification capabilities, potentially enabling attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive administrative functions within the WordPress environment. An attacker could exploit this weakness to modify taxonomy terms, alter metadata configurations, or potentially execute more severe operations depending on the administrative privileges of the targeted user. The vulnerability particularly affects sites where the MDTF plugin is actively used for managing complex metadata and taxonomy structures, as these administrative functions often require elevated privileges and represent critical points of system control. This weakness creates a significant risk for organizations relying on WordPress for content management, as successful exploitation could lead to complete compromise of the administrative interface.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2024-30457 should prioritize immediate plugin updates to versions that have implemented proper CSRF protection mechanisms. Administrators should conduct thorough security audits of their WordPress installations to identify all instances of the affected plugin and ensure that all users have been logged out and reauthenticated following the update process. The implementation of additional security measures such as Content Security Policy headers, proper session management, and regular security scanning should also be considered to provide layered protection against similar vulnerabilities. Organizations should also review their WordPress security configurations and consider implementing web application firewalls to detect and prevent exploitation attempts. This vulnerability highlights the importance of maintaining up-to-date security practices and following the principle of least privilege in administrative access control, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for phishing attacks that could leverage such weaknesses.