Wp Categories WidgetWordPress extension · Wp Experts
CVE-2023-31220
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 · uneditedUnauth. Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in WP-EXPERTS.IN TEAM WP Categories Widget plugin <= 2.2 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 · moderate confidenceUnauthenticated reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the WP-EXPERTS.IN TEAM WP Categories Widget plugin for WordPress versions 2.2 and below. Attackers can inject malicious JavaScript through unsanitized user input that gets reflected in the HTTP response without proper encoding.
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
Wp Categories WidgetWordPress extension
<= 2.2CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm plugin is installedAccess WordPress admin dashboard, navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins, and search for 'WP Categories Widget' or 'Wp Experts' to verify the plugin is present on the siteAffected if The plugin appears in the list of installed WordPress plugins
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Identify installed versionIn the Plugins list, locate the WP Categories Widget entry and note the version number displayed beneath the plugin nameAffected if The installed version is 2.2 or lower (e.g., 2.2, 2.1, 2.0, 1.x)
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Locate vulnerable parameterReview HTTP requests to pages containing the WP Categories Widget. Look for query parameters that accept user input and are reflected in the page response (common targets include search, category, or filter parameters)Affected if User-supplied input from a URL parameter is reflected in the HTML response without encoding or sanitization
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Test for XSS reflectionInject a benign XSS payload (such as <script>alert(1)</script> or <img src=x onerror=alert(1)>) into the identified parameter and observe whether it executes in the browser responseAffected if The payload is rendered as-is in the response and executes when the page loads, confirming the lack of input sanitization
The environment is affected if the WP Categories Widget plugin is installed with version 2.2 or lower AND user input is reflected in HTTP responses without proper HTML encoding.
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 WP Categories Widget plugin to a version beyond 2.2. Until a patch is available, implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to filter XSS attack patterns in requests, and validate/sanitize all user inputs on the affected endpoint.
Fix this in Wp Categories Widget
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,696.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-31220 — 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-2023-31220 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