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Seo Plugin By Squirrly SeoWordPress extension · Squirrly

CVE-2022-45065

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-05-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 12.1.20 or later.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
Unauth. Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Squirrly SEO Plugin by Squirrly SEO plugin <= 12.1.20 versions.

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

An unauthenticated reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability exists in Squirrly SEO plugin versions 12.1.20 and earlier. Attackers can inject malicious JavaScript through unsanitized user input that gets reflected in web pages without proper output encoding.

MitigationUpdate Squirrly SEO plugin to a version newer than 12.1.20, or implement proper input validation and output encoding on user-supplied parameters in the affected code paths.

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
Seo Plugin By Squirrly SeoWordPress extension
Affected:<= 12.1.20

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
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 Squirrly SEO plugin is installed
    Access your WordPress admin dashboard, navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins, and look for 'Squirrly SEO' in the list of active plugins.
    Affected if The Squirrly SEO plugin appears in the installed plugins list and is activated.
  2. Check installed plugin version
    In the WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins, find Squirrly SEO, and click on the plugin name or view its details to display the installed version number.
    Affected if The displayed version number is 12.1.20 or lower.
  3. Confirm version against vulnerable range
    Compare the installed version you found against the affected range: any version 12.1.20 or earlier is vulnerable.
    Affected if The installed version is 12.1.20 or any version below it (for example, 12.1.18, 12.1.10, 12.0.x, etc.).
  4. Identify accessible web entry points
    Since this is a reflected XSS via URL parameters, review your website for any publicly accessible pages that might process query parameters. The specific vulnerable parameter is not detailed in the CVE, but typical WordPress parameters include search, s, q, or custom query vars.
    Affected if Your site has publicly accessible URLs that accept user-supplied parameters and the vulnerable plugin version is installed.

Your environment is affected if the Squirrly SEO plugin version installed is 12.1.20 or earlier.

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 12.1.20
Interim mitigation

Update Squirrly SEO plugin to a version newer than 12.1.20, or implement proper input validation and output encoding on user-supplied parameters in the affected code paths.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Update to version 12.1.21 or later (check WordPress plugin repository for latest stable release)

  1. 1. Check current version of the Squirrly SEO plugin installed on your WordPress site
  2. 2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins in WordPress admin dashboard
  3. 3. If a newer version (above 12.1.20) is available, update the plugin through the WordPress plugin interface or via wp-cli: wp plugin install squirrly-seo --update
  4. 4. Alternatively, download the latest version from the official WordPress plugin repository or Squirrly website
  5. 5. After updating, verify the version number reflects the update
  6. 6. Test the affected functionality to confirm the XSS vulnerability is resolved
Caveat Review changelog for any breaking changes between your current version and the target version before updating

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

Fix this in Seo Plugin By Squirrly Seo Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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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-2022-45065 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