CVE-2024-9161
Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings <= 1.0.228 - Missing Authorization to Unauthenticated User and Term Metadata Insert, Update, and Delete
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- Wordfence
Description
The Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized modification and loss of data due to a missing capability check on the 'update_metadata' function in all versions up to, and including, 1.0.228. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to insert new and update existing metadata beginning with 'rank_math', and delete arbitrary existing user metadata and term metadata. Deleting existing usermeta can cause a loss of access to the administrator dashboard for any registered users, including Administrators.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordfenceCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 2.1% · top 18% of all CVEs (6 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.5.
Weakness
Affected products
rankmath · Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings
- affected ≤ 1.0.228
References (6)
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/7df39a64-76c5-4ebe-a271-44bd147a3a86?source=cve (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/seo-by-rank-math/trunk/includes/rest/class-shared.php#L120 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/seo-by-rank-math/trunk/includes/rest/class-shared.php#L161 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/seo-by-rank-math/trunk/includes/rest/class-shared.php#L162 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/seo-by-rank-math/trunk/includes/rest/class-shared.php#L64 (opens in a new tab)
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3161896/ (opens in a new tab)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2024-9161)Record last updated .