Wp PostratingsWordPress extension · Lesterchan
CVE-2023-40332
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 · uneditedImproper Control of Interaction Frequency vulnerability in Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan WP-PostRatings allows Functionality Misuse.This issue affects WP-PostRatings: from n/a through 1.91.
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 confidenceThe WP-PostRatings WordPress plugin lacks proper rate limiting on rating submission endpoints, allowing attackers to repeatedly submit ratings without restriction. This improper control of interaction frequency enables automated spamming of ratings, potential manipulation of rating metrics, and possible resource exhaustion.
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 PostratingsWordPress extension
< 1.91.1CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
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 WP-PostRatings plugin is installedIn WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'WP-PostRatings' by Lesterchan, or check the /wp-content/plugins/post-ratings/ directory exists on the serverAffected if The plugin is present in the WordPress installation
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Determine the installed versionIn WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and find the version number listed for WP-PostRatings, or read the 'Version:' field from the plugin's main PHP file header in /wp-content/plugins/post-ratings/Affected if The version is lower than 1.91.1 (e.g., 1.91, 1.90, etc.)
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Confirm rating submission endpoints are accessibleCheck if the rating functionality is enabled on posts/pages. Look for rating widgets on the site, or test submitting a rating via the /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php endpoint with action 'rate_post' parameterAffected if Rating submission functionality is active and publicly accessible without authentication
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Inspect for rate limiting controlsExamine the plugin's PHP source code in /wp-content/plugins/post-ratings/ for rate limiting logic. Search for functions handling rating submissions and look for throttling, limiting, or IP-based restriction code. Also check if the site uses a WAF or rate limiting pluginAffected if No rate limiting, throttling, or request frequency controls are implemented in the plugin code for rating submissions
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Review access logs for anomalous rating activityCheck web server access logs (Apache/nginx) for repeated POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with 'action=rate_post' or similar rating actions from the same IP address in short time periodsAffected if Logs show high-frequency rating submissions from single IPs without reasonable time gaps
The environment is affected if WP-PostRatings version is below 1.91.1 and rating submission functionality is enabled without external rate limiting protections.
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.
dbcve · scoped1.91.1
Implement rate limiting on rating submission functionality, restricting the number of rating submissions per user/IP within a defined time window. Additionally, add CAPTCHA or authentication requirements for rating submissions.
WP-PostRatings 1.91.1
- Log in to the WordPress admin dashboard
- Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins
- Locate WP-PostRatings in the plugin list
- Check if the current version is below 1.91.1
- If vulnerable, click 'Update Now' to upgrade to the latest version, or manually download version 1.91.1 or higher from wordpress.org
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Wp Postratings
Scoped from the published advisory
- 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-2023-40332 — 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-2023-40332 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