CVE-2021-24191: WP Maintenance Mode & Site Under Construction < 1.8.2 - Arbitrary Plugin Installation/Activation via Low Privilege User

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 1.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2021-05-14 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-285

Description

Low privileged users can use the AJAX action 'cp_plugins_do_button_job_later_callback' in the WP Maintenance Mode & Site Under Construction WordPress plugin before 1.8.2, to install any plugin (including a specific version) from the WordPress repository, as well as activate arbitrary plugin from then blog, which helps attackers install vulnerable plugins and could lead to more critical vulnerabilities like RCE.

Affected products

wpshopmart Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode: before 1.8.2 — fixed in 1.8.2

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: wpshopmart Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode 1.8.2. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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