CVE-2023-45652
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 Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in Justin Silver Remote Content Shortcode allows PHP Local File Inclusion.This issue affects Remote Content Shortcode: from n/a through 1.5.
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 confidencePath traversal vulnerability in the Remote Content Shortcode WordPress plugin (versions up to 1.5) allows remote attackers to perform Local File Inclusion (LFI) by manipulating file paths in plugin parameters. The plugin fails to properly validate or sanitize path inputs, enabling attackers to use '..' sequences to traverse directories and include arbitrary PHP files from the server filesystem.
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
- High
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/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 installationNavigate to WordPress admin dashboard under Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'Remote Content Shortcode' in the list, or inspect the wp-content/plugins directory for a folder named remote-content-shortcode or similar.Affected if The plugin appears in the installed plugins list or filesystem.
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Identify installed versionOpen the main plugin PHP file (typically remote-content-shortcode.php) and locate the version header in the plugin comment block, or check the plugin version displayed in the WordPress plugins admin page.Affected if The version number is 1.5 or lower, or no version is displayed (indicating an older unversioned release).
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Verify plugin is activeIn WordPress admin under Plugins > Installed Plugins, check if Remote Content Shortcode shows as 'Active', or query the wp_options table for the active_plugins option.Affected if The plugin is currently activated on the site.
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Inspect plugin source for vulnerable code patternsReview the plugin PHP files for include, require, or include_once statements that accept user-supplied parameters (such as $_GET, $_POST, or shortcode attributes) without proper sanitization using realpath() or basename().Affected if File inclusion functions use unsanitized input from request parameters or shortcode attributes.
If the Remote Content Shortcode plugin is installed, activated, and at version 1.5 or below with vulnerable include statements present, the environment is affected by this CVE.
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 dataUpgrade to the latest version of Remote Content Shortcode when available, or implement input validation using realpath() and directory allowlisting to restrict file inclusions to expected paths only. Until patched, disable the plugin if remote content inclusion functionality is not essential.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 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-2023-45652 — 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-2023-45652 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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- 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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