CVE•Published 2024-10-05•1 article on news•7 live references•NVD data

CVE-2024-9161

Vulnerability data via CVEDB (Shodan)

CVSS v3.1

6.5

MEDIUM

EPSS percentile

Exploit Prediction Scoring System · top 21% of all CVEs

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.

Timeline

Published 2024-10-05

External references

NVD MITRE Exploit-DB GitHub PoC Sploitus trickest/cve VulnCheck

Search for exposed instances

Shodan + Censys queries derived from NVD's CPE data. The vuln tag catches assets Shodan has explicitly linked to this CVE; the product / banner fingerprints find exposed instances even when the vuln tag was never applied (which is common).

Shodan · vuln tag0 hosts

vuln:CVE-2024-9161

Hosts Shodan has explicitly fingerprinted as vulnerable.

Shodan · WP plugin path

http.html:"/wp-content/plugins/seo/"

Matches any site loading the "seo" plugin — doesn't rely on Shodan's vuln tag.

Shodan · product

product:"Rankmath Seo"

All exposed Rankmath Seo instances — cross-reference with the CVE's affected-version range.

Shodan · banner/body mention

http.html:"Seo"

HTTP body or banner mentions "Seo" — catches deploys Shodan didn't identify as a product.