Description
The Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification and loss of data due to a missing capability check on the 'update_metadata' function in all versions up to, and including, 1.0.228. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to insert new and update existing metadata beginning with 'rank_math', and delete arbitrary existing user metadata and term metadata. Deleting existing usermeta can cause a loss of access to the administrator dashboard for any registered users, including Administrators.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| rankmath | Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings | ≤ 1.0.228 | — |
Automated scanner template
A ready-made Nuclei template detects this vulnerability automatically. Vulnerabilities with public scanner templates are typically probed across the internet soon after the template appears — exposed systems should be patched first.
- Rank Math SEO < 1.0.229 - Unauthenticated User and Term Metadata Insert/Update/Deletion http/cves/2024/CVE-2024-9161.yaml
Source: projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates (MIT) — updated daily. Only links are listed.
References
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/7df39a64-76c5-4ebe-a271-44bd147a3a86?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/seo-by-rank-math/trunk/includes/rest/class-shared.php#L120
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/seo-by-rank-math/trunk/includes/rest/class-shared.php#L161
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/seo-by-rank-math/trunk/includes/rest/class-shared.php#L162
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/seo-by-rank-math/trunk/includes/rest/class-shared.php#L64
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3161896/