CVE-2023-36528
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 FeedbackWP kk Star Ratings allows Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels.This issue affects kk Star Ratings: from n/a through 5.4.3.
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 confidenceMissing Authorization vulnerability in the kk Star Ratings WordPress plugin allows attackers to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels. The plugin fails to properly validate user permissions before allowing certain actions, potentially enabling unauthorized users to access or modify rating data they should not have access to.
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify kk Star Ratings plugin is installedCheck for the plugin directory at wp-content/plugins/kk-star-ratings/ or view installed plugins in WordPress admin under Plugins > Installed PluginsAffected if kk Star Ratings plugin appears in the list of installed plugins and is activated
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Identify installed plugin versionView the plugin file header (typically kk-star-ratings.php) to read the 'Version' defined in the plugin metadata, or check the version column in WordPress admin Plugins pageAffected if The version shown is earlier than the vendor patched version (compare against the latest version on WordPress.org)
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Confirm plugin is active and accepting ratingsVisit a page on the site that displays star ratings and submit a rating to verify the plugin functionality is active and operationalAffected if The plugin renders star rating elements and accepts rating submissions without requiring elevated privileges
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Check for non-administrator user accountsIn WordPress admin, navigate to Users > All Users to review existing user accounts and their assigned rolesAffected if There are user accounts with roles below Administrator (such as Editor, Author, Contributor, or Subscriber) who could potentially exploit the missing authorization checks
Your environment is affected if kk Star Ratings plugin is installed, active, running a version before the patched release, and has non-administrator user accounts present.
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 kk Star Ratings to the latest version to obtain the vendor patch that adds proper authorization checks. If unable to update immediately, review plugin settings and restrict user role permissions as a temporary mitigation.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 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 $3,088.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-36528 — 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-2023-36528 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