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Shortcodes UltimateWordPress extension · Getshortcodes

CVE-2022-41136

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-11-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.12.0 or later.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges

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
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability leading to Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) in Vladimir Anokhin's Shortcodes Ultimate plugin <= 5.12.0 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 Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Shortcodes Ultimate plugin versions <= 5.12.0 allows authenticated administrators to be tricked into submitting malicious requests that inject and store arbitrary JavaScript payloads (Stored XSS) into the plugin's settings or content, which then executes when other users access the affected pages.

MitigationUpdate Shortcodes Ultimate plugin to version 5.12.1 or later to patch the CSRF/XSS vulnerability, then audit existing content and settings for injected malicious scripts.

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
Shortcodes UltimateWordPress extension
Affected:<= 5.12.0

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
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

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. Check the installed version of Shortcodes Ultimate plugin
    Navigate to WordPress Admin > Plugins > Installed Plugins. Locate 'Shortcodes Ultimate' or 'Getshortcodes' and view the version number displayed. Alternatively, check the plugin header in /wp-content/plugins/shortcodes-ultimate/shortcodes-ultimate.php for the 'Version' comment tag.
    Affected if The installed version is 5.12.0 or lower.
  2. Verify the plugin is active on the site
    In WordPress Admin > Plugins, confirm the Shortcodes Ultimate plugin shows as 'Active'. If inactive, the CSRF attack surface is not reachable.
    Affected if The plugin is active and accessible to authenticated administrators.
  3. Inspect plugin settings for injected JavaScript
    Navigate to the plugin's settings pages (typically Shortcodes Ultimate > Settings, or any custom shortcode configuration pages). View the page source or inspect form fields for unexpected <script> tags, event handlers (onclick, onload, onerror), or javascript: URLs in text input fields.
    Affected if Arbitrary JavaScript or HTML tags are present in any plugin setting fields.
  4. Audit content using plugin shortcodes for stored XSS
    Review posts, pages, and widget areas that contain shortcode syntax like [su_button], [su_box], or other [su_*] shortcodes. Inspect the rendered HTML output in the browser developer tools or view page source to detect injected script tags or malicious attributes.
    Affected if Stored malicious scripts appear in rendered content that uses the plugin's shortcodes.
  5. Check for unauthorized administrator accounts
    In WordPress Admin > Users, review the list of administrators for any unknown or suspicious accounts that may have been created via the exploited vulnerability.
    Affected if Unexpected administrator accounts exist that were not created by legitimate site owners.

You are affected if the Shortcodes Ultimate plugin version is 5.12.0 or lower AND either malicious scripts are found in plugin settings/content OR unauthorized changes have been made to your site.

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.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 5.12.0
Interim mitigation

Update Shortcodes Ultimate plugin to version 5.12.1 or later to patch the CSRF/XSS vulnerability, then audit existing content and settings for injected malicious scripts.

Fix this in Shortcodes Ultimate Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.

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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-2022-41136 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