dbcve.org
Album And Image Gallery Plus LightboxWordPress extension · Essentialplugin

CVE-2024-4194

HIGH · 7.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-06-06
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.1 or later.
See remediation →
82/100
Remediation priority · High
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 The Album and Image Gallery plus Lightbox plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary shortcode execution in all versions up to, and including, 2.0. This is due to the software allowing users to execute an action that does not properly validate a value before running do_shortcode. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary shortcodes.

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 · moderate confidence

The Album and Image Gallery plus Lightbox WordPress plugin fails to validate user input before passing it to WordPress' do_shortcode() function, allowing unauthenticated attackers to inject and execute arbitrary shortcodes. This shortcode injection can lead to privilege escalation, data exposure, or further site compromise.

MitigationUpdate to a patched version of the plugin if available; otherwise disable the plugin until a security update is released. Consider WordPress hardening and restricting shortcode execution capabilities as a temporary measure.

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

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Album And Image Gallery Plus LightboxWordPress extension
Affected:< 2.1

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
Low
Availability
Low

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

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 the plugin is installed
    Check your WordPress plugins directory or navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins in the WordPress admin dashboard. Look for 'Essentialplugin Album And Image Gallery Plus Lightbox' or 'Album and Image Gallery plus Lightbox'.
    Affected if The plugin appears in the list of installed plugins.
  2. Check the installed plugin version
    In the WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and locate the plugin. The version number is displayed below the plugin name. Compare this version to the affected range: any version below 2.1 is vulnerable.
    Affected if The installed version is less than 2.1.
  3. Confirm the plugin is active
    In the WordPress admin plugins list, verify whether the plugin shows as 'Active' under the plugin status column.
    Affected if The plugin is currently active.
  4. Inspect for shortcode injection attempts
    Review your web server access logs and WordPress debug logs for unusual shortcode patterns in request parameters. Look for patterns like [shortcode] or [plugin-shortcode variants] appearing in GET/POST parameters where they should not exist.
    Affected if Log entries show shortcode tags being passed through query parameters, form inputs, or URL paths.
  5. Check for unauthorized shortcode execution
    Examine published posts, pages, and widget areas for unexpected shortcode output. Look for content that may have been injected through the vulnerability, such as user enrollment forms, password reset links, or administrative account creations.
    Affected if Shortcode output appears in content that was not authored by trusted administrators.

You are affected if the Album and Image Gallery plus Lightbox plugin is installed, active, and running version 2.0 or lower.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.1 or later
Fixed in 2.1
Interim mitigation

Update to a patched version of the plugin if available; otherwise disable the plugin until a security update is released. Consider WordPress hardening and restricting shortcode execution capabilities as a temporary measure.

Recommended fix High confidence

Version 2.1

  1. Log in to the WordPress admin dashboard
  2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins
  3. Find 'Album And Image Gallery Plus Lightbox' in the plugin list
  4. Click 'Update now' if an update is available, or manually upload version 2.1
  5. Verify the updated version shows 2.1 under the plugin name

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Album And Image Gallery Plus Lightbox Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-4194 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2024-4194 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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.

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