Unauthenticated privilege escalation via missing REST authorization
Published Apr 7, 2020 · Updated Aug 4, 2024
Missing authorization in Rank Math 1.0.40.2 and earlier allows remote attackers to grant or revoke WordPress administrator privileges. The rankmath/v1/updateMeta REST route registers update_metadata without a permission_callback, then accepts attacker-controlled object types, IDs, keys, and values for WordPress metadata writes. No authentication or user interaction is required; setting user-level and capability metadata can promote any registered account or lock an administrator out.
Summary
What happened
Missing authorization in Rank Math 1.0.40.2 and earlier allows remote attackers to grant or revoke WordPress administrator privileges. The rankmath/v1/updateMeta REST route registers update_metadata without a permission_callback, then accepts attacker-controlled object types, IDs, keys, and values for WordPress metadata writes. No authentication or user interaction is required; setting user-level and capability metadata can promote any registered account or lock an administrator out.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2020-11514
- Published
- Apr 7, 2020
- Updated
- Aug 4, 2024
- Vendor
- Unknown vendor
- Product
- Unknown product
- Classifications
- CWE-862, T1098
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Apr 7, 2020CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 4, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Affected products and versions are unavailable in this record.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo