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Quiz And Survey MasterWordPress extension · Expresstech

CVE-2021-36863

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-10-28
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 7.3.4 or later.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Auth. (contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in ExpressTech Quiz And Survey Master plugin <= 7.3.4 on WordPress.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

A stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in the Quiz And Survey Master WordPress plugin versions 7.3.4 and below. Authenticated users with contributor-level access or higher can inject malicious JavaScript code into quiz or survey fields that are stored in the database and executed when other users (including administrators) view the affected content.

MitigationUpdate the Quiz And Survey Master plugin to version 7.3.5 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, disable the plugin until an update can be applied, as contributor-level users can exploit this vulnerability.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Quiz And Survey MasterWordPress extension
Affected:<= 7.3.4

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

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

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify Quiz And Survey Master plugin is installed
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'Quiz And Survey Master' or 'Expresstech Quiz And Survey Master'. Note the installed version displayed next to the plugin name.
    Affected if The plugin is listed in the active WordPress installation.
  2. Determine installed plugin version
    Read the version number shown in the plugins list. Compare it to the affected range: versions 7.3.4 and below are vulnerable.
    Affected if The installed version is 7.3.4 or lower.
  3. Identify contributor-level or higher users
    In WordPress admin, go to Users > All Users and review the Role column. Look for users assigned 'Contributor', 'Author', 'Editor', or Administrator roles, as these can exploit the flaw.
    Affected if Any user account with Contributor role or higher exists on the site.
  4. Inspect quiz and survey entries for suspicious content
    Access the plugin's quiz/survey results via the WordPress admin panel (typically under QSM or Quiz And Survey Master menu). Examine stored entries in quiz fields for script tags, javascript: URIs, or HTML event attributes that may indicate injected XSS payloads.
    Affected if Any quiz or survey entries contain unsanitized script tags, event handlers, or JavaScript code in input fields.
  5. Review database for stored XSS patterns
    If database access is available, query the plugin's tables (commonly named like wp_qsm_*) for patterns such as '<script', 'javascript:', 'onerror=', 'onload=' within quiz field data.
    Affected if Database records contain script tags or event handler attributes in quiz/survey fields.

If the Quiz And Survey Master plugin is installed at version 7.3.4 or below AND contributor-level users exist on the site AND malicious scripts are found stored in quiz data, the environment is vulnerable to CVE-2021-36863.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 7.3.4
Interim mitigation

Update the Quiz And Survey Master plugin to version 7.3.5 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, disable the plugin until an update can be applied, as contributor-level users can exploit this vulnerability.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Latest version available on wordpress.org (7.3.5 or higher, as 7.3.4 was the vulnerable release)

  1. Log in to WordPress admin dashboard
  2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins
  3. Find 'Quiz And Survey Master' (ExpressTech) in the plugin list
  4. Click 'Update Now' if an update is available, or click 'Delete' and reinstall the latest version from wordpress.org
  5. Verify the update completed successfully
  6. Test quiz creation and survey functionality to ensure the plugin works correctly after update

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Quiz And Survey Master Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
Get the upgrade done

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Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-36863 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data