CVE-2024-12562·PHP vulnerability

How likely is exploitation

FIRST's Exploit Prediction Scoring System puts the probability of this CVE being exploited in the next 30 days at 0.88% — higher than 55% of all published CVEs. EPSS is an independent forecast of exploitation, not a severity rating: it says nothing about how much damage a successful attack does, which is what a CVSS score measures.

Read the two together. CVE-2024-12562 scores 9.8 on CVSS, so a successful attack would be serious — but at 0.88%, almost nobody is currently attempting it. That is a different situation from a flaw under mass exploitation, and it is usually the difference between patching on your next maintenance window and patching tonight.

Affected versions

How to fix this CVE

Update the s2Member Pro WordPress plugin to version 250214 or later to patch the PHP Object Injection vulnerability in the 's2member_pro_remote_op' parameter. This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to inject malicious PHP objects that could lead to arbitrary file deletion, data theft, or code execution if additional POP chains exist on your system. Immediately apply the update and verify no suspicious activity occurred during the exposure window.

sudo dnf check-update php && sudo dnf upgrade php

What an exploitation attempt looks like

Sample log line indicative of exploitation attempts:

POST.*s2member_pro_remote_op.*O:[0-9]+:"[a-zA-Z_\\]+":[0-9]+:{

WAF mitigation (if patching is not yet possible)

Add this rule to your WAF to block exploitation attempts while you schedule the patch.

Block or rate-limit POST requests to WordPress admin-ajax.php containing the 's2member_pro_remote_op' parameter combined with serialized PHP object patterns (strings starting with 'O:' or 'C:' followed by class name and object structure). Consider implementing strict input validation rules that reject serialized data in this parameter.

How to check if you are affected

1. Step 1: Check PHP version with `php -v` and verify the installed version is 7.4+ (required for s2Member Pro)
2. Step 2: List installed WordPress plugins with `wp plugin list --path=/var/www/html` (replace path as needed) and confirm s2Member Pro version is below 250214
3. Step 3: Search WordPress error and access logs for POST requests containing 's2member_pro_remote_op' parameter: `grep -r 's2member_pro_remote_op' /var/log/apache2/ /var/log/nginx/`
4. Step 4: After updating, verify the plugin version with `wp plugin get s2-member-pro --field=version` and confirm it shows 250214 or higher

FAQ

Related PHP CVEs

References

• https://s2member.com/changelog/
• https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/65192fdb-86db-475a-8c61-4db922920cfe?source=cve