CVE-2024-37235 in Groundhogg Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 01/02/2025
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Groundhogg Inc. Groundhogg allows Cross Site Request Forgery.This issue affects Groundhogg: from n/a through 3.4.2.3.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/06/2025
The Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-37235 represents a critical security flaw within the Groundhogg plugin ecosystem that enables attackers to execute unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users. This vulnerability specifically impacts the Groundhogg plugin version 3.4.2.3 and all preceding versions, creating a significant risk for WordPress websites that rely on this email marketing solution for their operations. The flaw stems from the plugin's inadequate validation of cross-site requests, allowing malicious actors to exploit the trust relationship between users and the web application. The vulnerability manifests when legitimate users interact with compromised web pages that contain malicious links or scripts, causing the plugin to process unauthorized requests without proper user consent or verification. This weakness directly violates the fundamental principle of CSRF protection mechanisms that should ensure all requests originate from legitimate sources and maintain user intent validation.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability demonstrates a failure in the plugin's request handling mechanism, where the application does not properly validate the referer header or implement anti-CSRF tokens in critical administrative functions. According to CWE-352, this vulnerability maps directly to Cross-Site Request Forgery, which occurs when a web application fails to verify that requests originate from the same origin as the application itself. The flaw enables attackers to craft malicious web pages or emails that, when visited by authenticated users, automatically submit requests to the Groundhogg plugin endpoints. This allows for unauthorized modifications to user accounts, email campaign configurations, or other administrative functions without the victim's knowledge or explicit consent. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond simple data manipulation as it can potentially lead to complete compromise of the email marketing infrastructure and associated user data.
The operational consequences of this CSRF vulnerability present substantial risks to organizations using Groundhogg for their email marketing operations, particularly those managing large subscriber lists or conducting sensitive marketing campaigns. Attackers could exploit this weakness to modify email templates, alter subscriber lists, disable important marketing features, or even gain access to sensitive user data within the plugin's administrative interface. The vulnerability's exploitation does not require authentication credentials from the attacker's perspective, as they can leverage the authenticated session of legitimate users. This creates a particularly dangerous scenario where administrators might unknowingly perform malicious actions while browsing compromised websites or clicking on malicious links in phishing emails. The impact is amplified in environments where administrators frequently access the plugin's interface and may inadvertently trigger malicious requests through social engineering or compromised third-party websites.
Security mitigations for this vulnerability should prioritize immediate patching of the affected Groundhogg plugin versions to 3.4.2.4 or later, as this represents the most effective solution to address the CSRF implementation flaw. Organizations should also implement additional protective measures including the enforcement of CSRF tokens for all administrative actions, proper validation of HTTP referer headers, and implementation of SameSite cookies for enhanced request origin verification. According to ATT&CK framework's T1566.001 technique, this vulnerability represents a social engineering attack vector that can be exploited through malicious websites or phishing campaigns. Network administrators should consider implementing web application firewalls with CSRF protection rules and monitoring for suspicious administrative activities that might indicate exploitation attempts. Regular security audits of WordPress plugins and themes should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities, while user education programs should emphasize the importance of avoiding suspicious links and maintaining updated security practices. The vulnerability highlights the critical need for comprehensive input validation and request origin verification in web applications, particularly those handling sensitive user data and administrative functions.