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Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)Weakness · CWE-352

CVE-2024-54438

HIGH · 7.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-12-16
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
78/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges

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
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in gaxx Gaxx Keywords gaxx-keywords allows Stored XSS.This issue affects Gaxx Keywords: from n/a through <= 0.2.

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

A CSRF vulnerability in the gaxx-keywords WordPress plugin (versions <= 0.2) allows authenticated or unauthenticated attackers to craft malicious requests that inject stored XSS payloads into the database. When other administrators or users access the affected pages, the persisted JavaScript executes in their browser context.

MitigationImplement WordPress nonces and CSRF tokens on all forms and AJAX endpoints, add proper nonce verification on server-side request handling, and ensure all user-supplied data is sanitized and output is escaped before rendering.

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
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/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 gaxx-keywords plugin is installed
    Navigate to WordPress admin dashboard > Plugins > Installed Plugins, or inspect /wp-content/plugins/ directory for gaxx-keywords folder
    Affected if The gaxx-keywords plugin folder exists in the WordPress plugins directory
  2. Determine installed plugin version
    Check the plugin header in main plugin file (usually gaxx-keywords.php) for the Version: field, or view the plugin details in WordPress admin plugins list
    Affected if The reported version is 0.2 or lower (e.g., 0.2, 0.1, any version <= 0.2)
  3. Inspect plugin for nonce implementation
    Examine plugin PHP source code for presence of wp_nonce_field(), wp_nonce_verify(), or check_admin_referer() calls on form handlers and AJAX endpoints
    Affected if Forms or AJAX actions lack nonce verification code entirely or have non-functional nonces
  4. Identify data handling for stored XSS
    Review plugin code that processes and saves user input to the database, and code that outputs this data to pages (looking for missing sanitize_text_field(), esc_html(), esc_attr() calls)
    Affected if User-supplied data is saved to database without sanitization or rendered in HTML without output escaping

User is affected if gaxx-keywords plugin version 0.2 or lower is installed AND the plugin lacks proper CSRF tokens on forms/endpoints AND user input is not sanitized before storage or escaped on output.

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

Implement WordPress nonces and CSRF tokens on all forms and AJAX endpoints, add proper nonce verification on server-side request handling, and ensure all user-supplied data is sanitized and output is escaped before rendering.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,984.

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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-2024-54438 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