CVE-2023-23986
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 · uneditedMissing Authorization vulnerability in Noah Hearle, Design Extreme Reviews and Rating – Google My Business allows Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels.This issue affects Reviews and Rating – Google My Business: from n/a through 4.14.
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 · moderate confidenceThis is a Missing Authorization vulnerability in the WordPress plugin 'Reviews and Rating – Google My Business'. The plugin fails to properly enforce authorization checks on certain functionality, allowing attackers to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels. This could permit unauthorized users to access or manipulate review data and settings that should require elevated privileges.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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
- None
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify the plugin is installedNavigate to WordPress admin > Plugins and look for 'Reviews and Rating - Google My Business' in the installed plugins list. Note whether it is active or inactive.Affected if The plugin is installed and active - only active plugins can be exploited.
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Identify the installed plugin versionClick on the plugin name or view the plugin details to find the version number displayed under the plugin name.Affected if You cannot determine the version to compare against fixed releases, so assume potentially affected if the plugin is active and unpatched.
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Check for exposed admin endpointsInspect your web server logs or use a network proxy to identify any requests to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php or wp-json/ endpoints that interact with this plugin's functionality without proper authentication headers.Affected if Requests to plugin-related AJAX or REST endpoints succeed without requiring valid authentication or elevated privileges.
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Review user role access to plugin featuresGo to WordPress admin > Users > Role Editor or similar, and examine what capabilities users with Subscriber, Contributor, or Author roles have related to Google My Business reviews or ratings.Affected if Lower-privileged users (Subscriber, Contributor, Author) can access, create, modify, or delete review data or plugin settings that should require Administrator privileges.
You are affected if the 'Reviews and Rating - Google My Business' plugin is active and allows users with insufficient privileges to access or manipulate review data and settings.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataUpdate the plugin to the latest patched version once available. If no patch exists, disable the plugin and seek an alternative solution. Review all access control configurations and user role permissions until a fix is released.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-23986 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-23986 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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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.
- 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