CVE-2024-5331 in Breakdance Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 08/01/2024
The Breakdance plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized access of data in all versions up to, and including, 1.7.2. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to export form submissions.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/01/2024
The Breakdance plugin for WordPress presents a critical authorization flaw that allows authenticated attackers with Contributor-level privileges or higher to access sensitive form submission data. This vulnerability exists within the plugin's permission handling mechanisms, where proper access controls fail to validate user roles adequately when processing export requests. The issue affects all versions up to and including 1.7.2, indicating a long-standing security gap that has not been addressed in the plugin's development lifecycle.
This vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and privilege escalation within the plugin's data export functionality. When authenticated users with Contributor status or higher attempt to export form submissions, the system fails to properly verify whether the requesting user has legitimate authorization to access the specific data they are attempting to export. The flaw essentially allows attackers to bypass normal access restrictions that should prevent users from viewing data they do not own or have explicit permission to access. This represents a direct violation of the principle of least privilege and proper access control enforcement.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant for WordPress sites utilizing the Breakdance plugin, as it enables unauthorized data exposure that could contain sensitive personal information, business data, or other confidential submissions. Contributors typically have limited publishing rights and are not expected to have access to other users' form submissions, making this privilege escalation particularly concerning. Attackers could potentially harvest personal information, business communications, or other sensitive data that form submissions might contain, leading to potential privacy violations, data breaches, and compliance issues under regulations such as gdpr and ccpa.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which addresses improper access control, and represents a classic case of insufficient authorization checks in web applications. From an attack framework perspective, this issue maps to the privilege escalation and data exposure tactics described in the mitre ATT&CK framework, specifically under the techniques related to accessing sensitive data and escalating privileges within applications. The attack surface is relatively narrow since it requires authentication and contributor-level access, but the impact is substantial given the nature of the exposed data.
Organizations should immediately update to the latest version of the Breakdance plugin where this vulnerability has been addressed through proper access control implementation. System administrators should also conduct audits of user roles and permissions to ensure that contributors do not have unnecessary access to form submission data. Additional mitigations include implementing network segmentation, monitoring for unusual export activity, and establishing proper role-based access controls that align with the principle of least privilege. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical importance of proper access control validation in web applications and the necessity of regular security assessments of third-party plugins.