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CVE-2020-36738· NVD / CVE Program· CNA Wordfence

Cool Timeline (Horizontal & Vertical Timeline) <= 2.0.2 - Cross-Site Request Forgery Bypass

The Cool Timeline (Horizontal & Vertical Timeline) plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions up to, and including, 2.0.2. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on the ctl_save() function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to save field icons via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

MediumCVSS 4.3 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available
Published
Jul 1, 2023
Updated
Jun 16, 2026
EPSS
0.5% · 39th percentile
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Report tools

JSON

Action score

17

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
17 / 40 · 4.3 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.5%

CISA SSVC decision

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial

Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.

CNA vs NVD score

NVD
—
CNA · Wordfence
4.3
NVD has not scored this yet; the score shown is the CNA’s.

The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.

Noroxi analysis

No Noroxi analysis for this record yet

We don't hand-write analysis for the hundreds of thousands of vulnerabilities in the database; that wouldn't be honest. For notable, high-impact vulnerabilities our team writes the mechanism, detection and remediation steps.

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Affected systems

VendorProduct
coolpluginscool timeline

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • coolplugins cool timelinebefore 2.0.3

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (Wordfence). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • narinder-singh Cool Timeline (Horizontal & Vertical Timeline)

    • before 2.0.3affected · semver

Same product

coolplugins: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2022-4950Cool Plugins (Various Versions) - Arbitrary Plugin Installation and Activation
    35Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
narinder-singh Cool Timeline (Horizontal & Vertical Timeline)2.0.3Vendor (CNA)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

EPSS, last 120 days

FIRST EPSS daily score; only changes of 0.01 or more are recorded (step chart).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it.
  • No account or password is required.
  • A user must open a link or visit a page.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
none
Integrity
low · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
none
Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
None
Integrity impact
Low
Availability impact
None

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N

nvd-secondary

Root cause

State-changing requests rely on the session cookie the browser sends automatically; nothing verifies that the request came from the user’s own page.

The bug in code

The whole CWE-352 class

A representative example of this vulnerability class. Not the vendor's source code; it shows the faulty pattern and its fix.

Vulnerable

ts
app.use(session({ cookie: { httpOnly: true } }));app.post("/account/address", updateAddress);

Fixed

ts
app.use(session({ cookie: { httpOnly: true, sameSite: "lax" } }));app.post("/account/address", csrfProtection, updateAddress);

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

ATT&CK techniques

—

Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records