Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2023-32798

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-12-13
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
62/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
Missing Authorization vulnerability in 10up Simple Page Ordering allows Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels.This issue affects Simple Page Ordering: from n/a through 2.5.0.

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

Missing authorization vulnerability in the Simple Page Ordering WordPress plugin allows authenticated users to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels, potentially enabling unauthorized reordering of pages beyond their intended permissions.

MitigationUpdate Simple Page Ordering to version 2.5.0 or later which contains the authorization fix. Alternatively, review and enforce proper user role-based access controls at the application level.

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
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/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 Simple Page Ordering plugin is installed
    Navigate to WordPress Admin > Plugins and locate 'Simple Page Ordering' in the installed plugins list. Note the version number displayed next to the plugin name.
    Affected if The plugin is installed and active, and the version shown is earlier than 2.5.0 or no version is displayed (indicating an older release)
  2. Check the installed plugin version number
    In the Plugins list, click on the plugin and look for the version information in the details popup, or check the plugin header in wp-content/plugins/simple-page-ordering/simple-page-ordering.php for the 'Version' comment.
    Affected if The version is below 2.5.0 (for example, 2.4.3, 2.3.x, etc.)
  3. Identify user accounts with page-editing capabilities
    Go to WordPress Admin > Users and review all user accounts. Check which users have the 'edit_pages' or 'edit_others_pages' capability assigned (either through their role or custom capability).
    Affected if There are user accounts with low-privilege roles (such as Subscriber or Contributor) who incorrectly have page-editing capabilities due to misconfiguration
  4. Test unauthorized page reordering capability
    Using a test low-privilege user account (e.g., Subscriber), attempt to access /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=simple_page_ordering and reorder pages outside your authorized scope. Check if the request succeeds when it should fail based on role permissions.
    Affected if The reordering action completes successfully for a user who should not have permission to reorder pages based on their assigned role

A user is affected if the Simple Page Ordering plugin is installed with a version earlier than 2.5.0 AND low-privilege users can reorder pages they should not have access to.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update Simple Page Ordering to version 2.5.0 or later which contains the authorization fix. Alternatively, review and enforce proper user role-based access controls at the application level.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-32798 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-32798 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