Hackers are exploiting a crucial vulnerability within the “Hunk Companion” plugin to put in and activate different plugins with exploitable flaws straight from the WordPress.org repository.
By putting in outdated plugins with identified vulnerabilities with out there exploits, the attackers can entry a big pool of flaws that result in distant code execution (RCE), SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS) flaws, or create backdoor admin accounts.
The exercise was found by WPScan, who reported it to Hunk Companion, with a safety replace addressing the zero-day flaw launched yesterday.
Putting in susceptible plugins
Hunk Companion is a WordPress plugin designed to enhance and improve the performance of themes developed by ThemeHunk, a supplier of customizable WordPress themes, so it is extra of an add-on somewhat than a standalone plugin.
In accordance with WordPress.org stats, Hunk Companion is presently utilized by over 10,000 WordPress websites, so it is a comparatively area of interest device within the house.
The crucial vulnerability was found by WPScan researcher Daniel Rodriguez and is tracked as CVE-2024-11972. The flaw permits the arbitrary set up of plugins by the use of unauthenticated POST requests.
The difficulty impacts all variations of Hunk Companion earlier than the newest 1.9.0, launched yesterday, which addressed the issue.
Whereas investigating a WordPress website an infection, WPScan found energetic exploitation of CVE-2024-11972 to put in a susceptible model of WP Question Console.
That is an obscure plugin final up to date over 7 years in the past, which the hackers exploited to execute malicious PHP code on the focused websites, leveraging the zero-day RCE flaw CVE-2024-50498.
“In the infections we’ve analyzed, attackers use the RCE to write a PHP dropper to the site’s root directory,” explains WPScan.
“This dropper allows continued unauthenticated uploads via GET requests, enabling persistent backdoor access to the site.”
It is price noting that Hunk Companion fastened an identical flaw in model 1.8.5, which was tracked beneath CVE-2024-9707, however apparently, the patch wasn’t ample, and methods to bypass it exist.
Given the flaw’s severity and its energetic exploitation standing, customers of Hunk Companion are advisable to replace to 1.9.0 as quickly as potential.
On the time of writing, the newest model has been downloaded roughly 1,800 occasions, so at the very least eight thousand web sites stay susceptible to exploitation.
