CVE-2024-8353

What is this vulnerability?

CVE-2024-8353 is categorized as a critical Deserialization of Untrusted Data flaw with a CVSS base score of 9.8. Based on our vulnerability intelligence, this issue occurs when the application fails to securely handle untrusted data boundaries.

The GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to PHP Object Injection in all versions up to, and including, 3.16.1 via deserialization of untrusted input via several parameters like 'give_title' and 'card_address'. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject a PHP Object. The additional presence of a POP chain allows attackers to delete arbitrary files and achieve remote code execution. This is essentially the same vulnerability as CVE-2024-5932, however, it was discovered the the presence of stripslashes_deep on user_info allows the is_serialized check to be bypassed. This issue was mostly patched in 3.16.1, but further hardening was added in 3.16.2.

This architectural defect enables adversaries to bypass intended security controls, directly manipulating the application's execution state or data layer. Immediate strategic intervention is required.

Risk Assessment

Impact on Systems

✅ Data Exfiltration: Attackers can extract sensitive data from backend databases, configuration files, or internal services.

✅ Authentication Bypass: Exploiting this flaw may allow unauthorized access to protected resources and administrative interfaces.

✅ Lateral Movement: Once initial access is gained, attackers can pivot to internal systems and escalate privileges.

How to Fix and Mitigate CVE-2024-8353

1. Apply Vendor Patches: Upgrade affected components to their latest, non-vulnerable versions immediately.
2. Implement Input Validation: Ensure all user-supplied data is validated, sanitized, and type-checked before processing.
3. Deploy Runtime Protection: Use Precogs continuous monitoring to detect exploitation attempts in real time.
4. Audit Dependencies: Review and update all third-party libraries and transitive dependencies.

Defending with Precogs AI

The GiveWP plugin for WordPress contains an unauthenticated PHP Object Injection vulnerability. Attackers send crafted serialized payloads to execute arbitrary code on the server, resulting in a full site compromise. Precogs API Security Engine identifies unsafe object deserialization mechanisms.

Use Precogs to continuously scan your codebase, binaries, APIs, and infrastructure for this vulnerability class and related attack patterns. Our AI-powered detection engine combines static analysis with threat intelligence to identify exploitable weaknesses before attackers do.

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Vulnerability Code Signature

Attack Data Flow

Vulnerable Code Pattern

// ❌ VULNERABLE: Unsafe deserialization
public Object deserialize(byte[] data) throws Exception {
    ByteArrayInputStream bais = new ByteArrayInputStream(data);
    ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(bais);
    // Taint sink: instantiates arbitrary classes
    return ois.readObject();
}

Secure Code Pattern

// ✅ SECURE: Type-restricted deserialization
public Object deserialize(byte[] data) throws Exception {
    ByteArrayInputStream bais = new ByteArrayInputStream(data);
    // Use ValidatingObjectInputStream (Apache Commons IO)
    ValidatingObjectInputStream ois = new ValidatingObjectInputStream(bais);
    ois.accept(SafeClass.class);
    // Sanitized instantiation
    return ois.readObject();
}

How Precogs Detects This

Precogs AI Analysis Engine natively intercepts unsafe deserialization sinks to prevent remote code execution via object instantiation.\n