Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2024-3235

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-04-10
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
62/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges 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 Essential Grid Gallery WordPress Plugin plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Sensitive Information Exposure in all versions up to, and including, 3.1.1 via the on_front_ajax_action() function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to view private and password protected posts that may have private or sensitive information.

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 Essential Grid Gallery WordPress plugin up to version 3.1.1 has an information disclosure vulnerability in its on_front_ajax_action() function. The AJAX handler fails to properly enforce access controls, allowing unauthenticated attackers to query and retrieve private and password-protected posts through the WordPress AJAX interface, exposing sensitive content that should require authentication to access.

MitigationUpdate Essential Grid Gallery to version 3.1.2 or later which contains the access control fix. If immediate updating is not feasible, consider restricting access to the vulnerable AJAX endpoint or temporarily disabling the plugin.

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
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
None
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/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. Verify Essential Grid Gallery plugin is installed
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'Essential Grid Gallery' or check the plugins directory for the essential-grid folder
    Affected if The plugin is not installed or has been removed, then the vulnerability does not apply
  2. Determine installed plugin version
    In WordPress admin > Plugins > Installed Plugins, find Essential Grid Gallery and note the version number displayed
    Affected if Version is 3.1.1 or lower (any version up to and including 3.1.1 is affected)
  3. Confirm the on_front_ajax_action AJAX endpoint exists
    Check if the file essential-grid/essential-grid.php or similar contains the function on_front_ajax_action, or test for the presence of the AJAX handler by reviewing plugin source files for the wp_ajax_nopriv hook on this function
    Affected if The AJAX handler function exists and is hooked to WordPress AJAX without proper capability checks
  4. Test unauthenticated access to protected content
    Send a crafted AJAX request to the WordPress AJAX endpoint (typically /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php) with an action parameter that triggers on_front_ajax_action, attempting to query private or password-protected posts without providing authentication credentials
    Affected if The request returns private or password-protected post content without requiring authentication, confirming the access control failure

If Essential Grid Gallery version 3.1.1 or lower is installed and the on_front_ajax_action AJAX endpoint is accessible to unauthenticated users, the environment is affected by this information disclosure 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 Essential Grid Gallery to version 3.1.2 or later which contains the access control fix. If immediate updating is not feasible, consider restricting access to the vulnerable AJAX endpoint or temporarily disabling the plugin.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-3235 — 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-2024-3235 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