CVE-2023-40672
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 Hardik Chavada Sticky Social Media Icons.This issue affects Sticky Social Media Icons: from n/a through 2.1.
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 Sticky Social Media Icons WordPress plugin allows unauthenticated or underprivileged users to access or modify plugin settings due to lack of capability checks and permission verification. The plugin fails to enforce proper access controls on certain functions or AJAX endpoints.
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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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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Identify if the Sticky Social Media Icons plugin is installedGo to WordPress admin dashboard > Plugins page and look for 'Sticky Social Media Icons' in the installed plugins list, or check the /wp-content/plugins/ directory for a folder containing 'sticky-social' or similar namingAffected if The plugin is installed and active
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Determine the installed plugin versionIn the Plugins admin page, click on the plugin to view its details, or open the main plugin PHP file (usually sticky-social-media-icons.php or similar) and look for the 'Version' header in the plugin commentsAffected if The version cannot be determined or is older than the version containing the fix (you must compare against the vendor's release notes for the patched version)
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Inspect AJAX endpoint handlers for missing capability checksAccess the plugin files via FTP or file manager, then examine PHP files containing 'wp_ajax_' or 'wp_ajax_nopriv_' hooks. Look for functions that handle plugin settings or data modification and verify if they include 'current_user_can' or similar authorization checks before executing sensitive operationsAffected if AJAX handlers that modify plugin settings or data are found without 'current_user_can()' or 'nonce' verification
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Review admin action functions for authorization gapsIn the plugin PHP files, locate functions that save, update, delete, or output plugin settings or content. Check if these functions include permission checks (like 'current_user_can') at the function entry point before performing privileged operationsAffected if Functions that modify plugin settings or output content lack capability checks and are accessible to users with low privileges or unauthenticated users
Your environment is affected if the Sticky Social Media Icons plugin is installed, the installed version predates the vendor's patched version, and AJAX endpoints or admin functions lack capability checks (current_user_can) allowing unauthorized access to 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 to the latest version of the plugin which should include proper authorization checks. If no update is available, add capability checks (current_user_can) and nonce verification to all functions that modify plugin settings or output content.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-40672 — 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-2023-40672 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
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