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Wordpress Popular PostsWordPress extension · Wordpress Popular Posts Project

CVE-2022-43468

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-12-07
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 6.0.5 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
External initialization of trusted variables or data stores vulnerability exists in WordPress Popular Posts 6.0.5 and earlier, therefore the vulnerable product accepts untrusted external inputs to update certain internal variables. As a result, the number of views for an article may be manipulated through a crafted input.

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

WordPress Popular Posts plugin versions 6.0.5 and earlier accept untrusted external inputs to update internal variables related to article view counts. This allows attackers to manipulate the 'popular posts' data through crafted input, as the plugin fails to properly validate or sanitize external data before using it to update trusted internal counters.

MitigationUpdate WordPress Popular Posts to version 6.0.6 or later which properly validates external inputs before updating internal view count variables.

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
Wordpress Popular PostsWordPress extension
Affected:<= 6.0.5

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
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/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 WordPress Popular Posts plugin is installed
    Navigate to WordPress admin dashboard > Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'WordPress Popular Posts' in the list, or check the /wp-content/plugins/ directory for a folder named 'wordpress-popular-posts'
    Affected if The plugin folder exists in the WordPress installation
  2. Check installed plugin version
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and click 'View Details' on WordPress Popular Posts to see the version number, or open the main plugin file (wordpress-popular-posts.php) and look for the 'Version:' header in the plugin comments
    Affected if Version displayed is 6.0.5 or lower
  3. Confirm plugin is active
    In WordPress admin > Plugins > Installed Plugins, verify that WordPress Popular Posts shows 'Active' status under the plugin name
    Affected if Plugin status is Active (inactive plugins cannot be exploited)
  4. Check if site tracks post views
    Navigate to WordPress Popular Posts settings in the admin dashboard and verify that post view tracking is enabled, or check if the wpp_render_xml() function processes view count updates
    Affected if View tracking functionality is enabled and the plugin processes view count updates

You are affected if WordPress Popular Posts plugin version 6.0.5 or earlier is installed, active, and view count tracking is enabled on 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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 6.0.5
Interim mitigation

Update WordPress Popular Posts to version 6.0.6 or later which properly validates external inputs before updating internal view count variables.

Recommended fix High confidence

WordPress Popular Posts 6.0.6

  1. Log in to WordPress admin dashboard
  2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins
  3. Find "WordPress Popular Posts" in the plugin list
  4. Click "Update now" if an update is available, or manually update to version 6.0.6 or later
  5. Verify the updated version in the Plugins list after completion

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

Fix this in Wordpress Popular Posts Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

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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-2022-43468 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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