CVE-2024-31434 in Newsletter Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 04/15/2024
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Stefano Lissa & The Newsletter Team Newsletter.This issue affects Newsletter: from n/a through 8.0.6.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/06/2025
The CVE-2024-31434 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the Newsletter plugin developed by Stefano Lissa and The Newsletter Team. This vulnerability exists in versions ranging from the initial release through version 8.0.6, creating a persistent security weakness that could be exploited by malicious actors to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of the origin of HTTP requests, allowing attackers to craft malicious requests that appear legitimate to the target system.
This CSRF vulnerability operates by exploiting the trust relationship between a web application and its users, specifically targeting the Newsletter plugin's administrative functions. When users navigate to compromised websites or click on malicious links, attackers can leverage the authenticated session to execute unauthorized operations such as modifying newsletter configurations, sending spam emails, or altering user permissions. The flaw occurs because the plugin fails to implement proper anti-CSRF tokens or origin verification mechanisms in its critical administrative endpoints, making it susceptible to exploitation across different user sessions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data manipulation, as it can enable attackers to establish persistent footholds within affected systems. An attacker could potentially use this vulnerability to send mass emails through the compromised newsletter system, leading to reputation damage and potential spam filtering issues. The vulnerability also poses risks to user privacy and data integrity, as unauthorized modifications to newsletter settings could result in unauthorized data collection or exposure. Additionally, the attack surface is particularly concerning given that the vulnerability affects a widely-used plugin, potentially exposing numerous websites to coordinated attacks.
From a security standards perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in web applications. The flaw also maps to ATT&CK technique T1566.001, which covers phishing with malicious attachments, as attackers could potentially leverage this vulnerability to deliver malicious payloads through compromised newsletter systems. The vulnerability's persistence across multiple versions indicates a fundamental design flaw in the plugin's security implementation that requires immediate remediation. Organizations should prioritize updating to the latest available version of the Newsletter plugin, as this represents the most effective immediate mitigation strategy against exploitation.
The technical nature of this vulnerability demonstrates a failure in implementing proper request validation mechanisms, which is a common pattern in web application security flaws. The absence of anti-CSRF token validation in the plugin's administrative interfaces creates an exploitable condition that directly violates security best practices for session management. Security teams should conduct comprehensive assessments of all systems running affected plugin versions and implement monitoring for suspicious administrative activities that might indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, network-level security controls such as web application firewalls and request filtering mechanisms can provide additional defense-in-depth layers to protect against potential exploitation attempts.