Skip to content
Noroxi
NVD / CVE Program· CNA Patchstack

CVE-2023-45603: WordPress User Submitted Posts Plugin <= 20230902 is vulnerable to Arbitrary File Upload

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 39/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.97% (FIRST EPSS); higher than 62.3% of all records.
  • Anyone who can reach it over the internet can trigger it. No account or password is required. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: Jeff Starr User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End 20230914.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to Jeff Starr User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End 20230914 or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type vulnerability in Jeff Starr User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End.This issue affects User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End: from n/a through 20230902.

CriticalCVSS 9.8 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available
Published
Dec 20, 2023
Updated
Jun 17, 2026
EPSS
0.9% · 62th percentile

Report tools

JSON

Action score

39

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
39 / 40 · 9.8 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.9%

CNA vs NVD score

NVD
9.8
CNA · Patchstack
9.0
0.8 point gap

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

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

Is User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End on your site?

WP Lens reads your site's plugin, theme and WordPress versions from the outside and matches them to known vulnerabilities. Works without an account.

Follow CVE-2023-45603

Is User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End on your site?

When you'll hear from us

  • when it enters CISA KEV
  • when exploit code appears or is weaponized
  • when the record is updated (including a fixed version)
  • when EPSS rises 20 points in a week

One daily email digest (06:00 UTC); connect a webhook for KEV listings and weaponized exploits instantly.

Your free account also gets you

  • Stack alerts: add the products and versions you run, get the new CVEs that affect them
  • Uptime monitoring: 1 site, instant email when it goes down
  • Add your domain: subdomains and takeover risk scanned every week (1 domain)
  • 10 scans an hour on the security tools (3 a day without an account), an API key and MCP
  • All your scans in one panel: findings, what changed in the last scan, a report per domain or per client (PDF, share link)
All free tools

Sign up with email · Have an account? Sign in

Free account, no card. Unfollow any time.

Don't want an account? Get "Exploited this week" by email every MondayDon't want an account? RSS feed for plugin-planet records
If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.
Is your version affected? Check it

Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

We use this product, ask for help

Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
plugin-planetuser submitted posts

Affected versions

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

  • plugin-planet user submitted postsup to 20230902 inclusive

Versions reported by the vendor

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

  • Jeff Starr User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End

    • n/a and later · up to and including 20230902affectedfixed in 20230914

Same product

plugin-planet: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2019-25138User Submitted Posts <= 20190312 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Upload
    40Plan
  • CVE-2016-11001The user-submitted-posts plugin before 20160215 for WordPress has XSS via the user-submitted-content field.
    24Monitor
  • CVE-2023-4779User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End <= 20230811 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Shortcode
    21Monitor

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2023-4308Aug 15, 2023 · User Submitted Posts <= 20230809 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via 'user-submitted-content'
    21Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2024-5002Jul 13, 2024 · User Submitted Posts < 20240516 - Admin+ Stored XSS
    19Monitor

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
Jeff Starr User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End20230914Vendor (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.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

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

No commit or PR link among the references.

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.

  • CVE-2019-25138197 days apartUser Submitted Posts <= 20190312 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Upload
    40Plan

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.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
high · data can be read
Integrity
high · data or configuration can be modified
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
High
Integrity impact
High
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

CWE-434 · Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type

CVSS vector

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

nvd-primary

Attack context

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

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