CVE-2024-3287
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 · uneditedThe SmartCrawl WordPress SEO checker, SEO analyzer, SEO optimizer plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized ld+json description injection due to a missing capability check on the save_settings function in all versions up to, and including, 3.10.2. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to save schema types.
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 confidenceThe SmartCrawl WordPress plugin fails to enforce authorization checks on its save_settings AJAX function, allowing any unauthenticated visitor to inject or modify ld+json schema data. This broken access control vulnerability permits schema poisoning for SEO manipulation or potentially XSS injection through malicious schema markup.
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
- None
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
-
Verify SmartCrawl plugin installation and versionNavigate to WordPress Admin > Plugins and locate SmartCrawl, or inspect the plugin main file (usually in wp-content/plugins/smartcrawl-seo/) and read the version header commentAffected if SmartCrawl is installed with a version lower than 3.10.3
-
Confirm ld+json schema feature is in useGo to SmartCrawl settings > Schema (or SEO > Schema) and check if any schema markup is configured or enabledAffected if Schema/ld+json configuration exists and the plugin is active
-
Verify AJAX endpoint accessibilityCheck if the WordPress AJAX endpoint /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php is exposed without authentication, and confirm the save_settings action is callable by inspecting plugin JavaScript files or making a test POST request to admin-ajax.php with action=smartcrawl_save_settingsAffected if The AJAX endpoint responds without requiring authentication and accepts the save_settings action
-
Inspect current schema markup in page sourceView the source of a published page on the site and search for <script type="application/ld+json"> tags to see current schema dataAffected if Schema markup is present and could have been injected or modified without authorization
A site is affected if SmartCrawl plugin version is below 3.10.3 and the ld+json schema feature is enabled, allowing unauthenticated access to modify SEO markup.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataUpdate SmartCrawl plugin to version 3.10.3 or later which includes proper capability validation on the save_settings function. If immediate update is not possible, disable the plugin or restrict access to the vulnerable endpoint via web server configuration.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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 locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-3287 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-3287 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
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.
- 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