SQL InjectionWeakness · CWE-89

CVE-2024-13778

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-03-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
71/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The Hero Mega Menu - Responsive WordPress Menu Plugin plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to SQL Injection via several functions in all versions up to, and including, 1.16.5 due to insufficient escaping on the user supplied parameter and lack of sufficient preparation on the existing SQL query. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Subscriber-level access and above, to append additional SQL queries into already existing queries that can be used to extract sensitive information from the database.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

The Hero Mega Menu WordPress plugin versions up to 1.16.5 contain a SQL Injection vulnerability due to insufficient user input escaping and lack of prepared SQL statements. Authenticated attackers with Subscriber-level permissions can inject arbitrary SQL queries via vulnerable functions to extract sensitive database information.

MitigationUpdate the plugin to version 1.16.6 or later which contains the security fix. If no update is available, consider removing the plugin until a patched version is released.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm Hero Mega Menu plugin is installed
    Navigate to WordPress admin > Plugins, or inspect the wp-content/plugins/ directory for a folder named 'hero-mega-menu' or similar.
    Affected if The plugin folder exists in the WordPress installation.
  2. Identify the installed plugin version
    In WordPress admin > Plugins, locate Hero Mega Menu and view the version number displayed beneath the plugin name. Alternatively, read the 'Version:' field in the plugin's main PHP file header.
    Affected if The installed version is 1.16.5 or lower.
  3. Verify the plugin is active
    In WordPress admin > Plugins, check if Hero Mega Menu shows as 'Active' rather than 'Inactive' or 'Must-Use'.
    Affected if The plugin is enabled and running on the site.
  4. Check user role configurations
    Navigate to WordPress admin > Users and review which roles exist. The vulnerability is exploitable by any user with Subscriber-level access or higher.
    Affected if The site has user accounts with Subscriber-level permissions or above, and those users can access the plugin's functionality.

If Hero Mega Menu is installed, active, and running version 1.16.5 or lower, the environment is affected by this SQL injection vulnerability.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update the plugin to version 1.16.6 or later which contains the security fix. If no update is available, consider removing the plugin until a patched version is released.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-13778 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-13778 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data