CVE-2024-28850
HIGHCVE-2024-28850 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.1) CWE-494 vulnerability in johnbillion/wp-crontrol. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2024-28850 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
WP Crontrol possible RCE when combined with a pre-condition
Blast Radius
johnbillion/wp-crontrolReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Packagist packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
WP Crontrol controls the cron events on WordPress websites. WP Crontrol includes a feature that allows administrative users to create events in the WP-Cron system that store and execute PHP code subject to the restrictive security permissions documented here. While there is no known vulnerability in this feature on its own, there exists potential for this feature to be vulnerable to RCE if it were specifically targeted via vulnerability chaining that exploited a separate SQLi (or similar) vulnerability. This is exploitable on a site if one of the below preconditions are met, the site is vulnerable to a writeable SQLi vulnerability in any plugin, theme, or WordPress core, the site's database is compromised at the hosting level, the site is vulnerable to a method of updating arbitrary options in the wp_options table, or the site is vulnerable to a method of triggering an arbitrary action, filter, or function with control of the parameters. As a hardening measure, WP Crontrol version 1.16.2 ships with a new feature that prevents tampering of the code stored in a PHP cron event.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐘Packagist | johnbillion/wp-crontrol | all versions | 1.16.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for johnbillion/wp-crontrol. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update johnbillion/wp-crontrol to 1.16.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-28850 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2024-28850 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2024-28850. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-28850 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2024-28850 across Packagist dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.