CVE-2024-8252: The Clean Login plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Local File Inclusion in all versions up to, and including, 1.14.5 via the 'template' attribute of the…

PriorityP263high8.8CVSS 3.1

AVNACLPRLUINSUCHIHAH

EXPLOIT

EPSS

3.03%

85.8th percentile

The Clean Login plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Local File Inclusion in all versions up to, and including, 1.14.5 via the 'template' attribute of the clean-login-register shortcode. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to include and execute arbitrary files on the server, allowing the execution of any PHP code in those files. This can be used to bypass access controls, obtain sensitive data, or achieve code execution in cases where images and other “safe” file types can be uploaded and included.

Affected

2 ranges

Vendor	Product	Version range	Fixed in
codection	clean_login	< 1.14.6	1.14.6
hornero	clean_login	<= 1.14.5	—

Detection & IOCsextracted from sources · hover to see the quote

command[clean-login-register template="../../../../../../../etc/passwd"]

path../../../../../../../etc/passwd

→Exploit uses WordPress XML-RPC (wp.newPost) to create a post containing the malicious shortcode [clean-login-register template="../../../../../../../etc/passwd"], then fetches the published post to trigger LFI. Detect POST requests to /xmlrpc.php containing 'clean-login-register' and path traversal sequences in the post_content field.
→The exploit chain first calls wp.getUsersBlogs to validate credentials, then wp.newPost to inject the payload. Monitor XML-RPC calls that combine authentication probing (wp.getUsersBlogs) followed immediately by wp.newPost with shortcode content.
→Successful exploitation is confirmed by the presence of 'root:.*:0:0:' pattern in the HTTP response body of the published post page (/?p=<postid>). Alert on responses matching this regex from WordPress page requests.
→The vulnerable shortcode attribute is 'template' in the clean-login-register shortcode. Any path traversal string (e.g., '../') passed to this attribute in post content should be flagged as a LFI attempt. ↗

·Exploitation requires at minimum Contributor-level authenticated access to WordPress; unauthenticated exploitation is not possible. ↗
·The vulnerability affects all versions of the Clean Login plugin up to and including 1.14.5. Installations on versions beyond 1.14.5 are not affected. ↗

CVEs like this are exactly what “Exploited This Week” covers.

Every Monday: what got weaponized or added to CISA KEV in the last seven days — each CVE cross-linked to its PoC, Nuclei template, and detection rule. Free, one email a week, unsubscribe in one click.