VYPR
Unrated severityNVD Advisory· Published May 14, 2021· Updated Aug 3, 2024

WooCommerce Conditional Marketing Mailer < 1.5.2 - Arbitrary Plugin Installation/Activation via Low Privilege User

CVE-2021-24190

Description

Low privileged users can use the AJAX action 'cp_plugins_do_button_job_later_callback' in the WooCommerce Conditional Marketing Mailer WordPress plugin before 1.5.2, to install any plugin (including a specific version) from the WordPress repository, as well as activate arbitrary plugin from then blog, which helps attackers install vulnerable plugins and could lead to more critical vulnerabilities like RCE.

AI Insight

LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.

Affected products

2

Patches

Vulnerability mechanics

Root cause

"Missing capability checks on the AJAX action 'cp_plugins_do_button_job_later_callback' allows low-privileged users to install and activate arbitrary plugins."

Attack vector

An attacker with low-privileged access (e.g., a subscriber or contributor) can send a crafted AJAX request to the 'cp_plugins_do_button_job_later_callback' action [ref_id=1]. The request can specify any plugin slug (and version) from the WordPress.org repository to be installed, and can also activate any already-installed plugin on the blog [ref_id=1]. This enables the attacker to install vulnerable plugins and escalate to more critical vulnerabilities such as remote code execution [ref_id=1].

Affected code

The vulnerable AJAX action is 'cp_plugins_do_button_job_later_callback' [ref_id=1]. The advisory does not specify the exact file or function name within the plugin.

What the fix does

The advisory does not include a patch diff, but the vulnerability was fixed in version 1.5.2 of the WooCommerce Conditional Marketing Mailer plugin [ref_id=1]. The fix presumably adds proper capability or nonce checks to the AJAX handler to ensure only users with sufficient privileges (e.g., administrators) can install or activate plugins. Without such checks, any authenticated user can trigger plugin installation and activation.

Preconditions

  • authAttacker must be an authenticated low-privileged user (e.g., subscriber or contributor) on the WordPress site.
  • networkAttacker must be able to send AJAX requests to the WordPress admin-ajax.php endpoint.

Generated on May 25, 2026. Inputs: CWE entries + fix-commit diffs from this CVE's patches. Citations validated against bundle.

References

1

News mentions

0

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