Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2023-46637

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-01-02
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 Saurav Sharma Generate Dummy Posts allows Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels.This issue affects Generate Dummy Posts: from n/a through 1.0.0.

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 · moderate confidence

A missing authorization vulnerability in the Generate Dummy Posts plugin allows attackers to exploit incorrectly configured access control security levels. The plugin fails to properly validate user permissions before allowing post creation or manipulation, enabling unauthenticated or unauthorized users to perform actions they should not have access to.

MitigationImplement proper role-based access control (RBAC) and authorization checks on all plugin functions that create, modify, or delete posts, ensuring only users with appropriate capabilities (e.g., 'edit_posts') can execute these operations.

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 plugin installation and activation status
    Navigate to WordPress admin dashboard > Plugins > Installed Plugins and locate 'Generate Dummy Posts' or 'Generate Dummy Posts plugin'. Confirm it is installed and activated.
    Affected if The plugin is installed and active in the WordPress environment
  2. Identify installed plugin version
    In the Plugins list, click on the plugin name to view details, or inspect the plugin header in the main plugin file (usually in wp-content/plugins/generate-dummy-posts/ directory) to find the Version: x.x.x declaration.
    Affected if The installed version matches or falls within any affected version range for this CVE
  3. Test unauthenticated access to post creation functionality
    Using a tool like curl or a browser in incognito mode, attempt to access the plugin's main functionality endpoint (typically a page at /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with action 'generate_dummy_posts' or similar, or the plugin's settings page) without logging in.
    Affected if The request succeeds and returns post generation results without requiring authentication
  4. Inspect plugin code for capability checks
    Access the main plugin PHP file (commonly generate-dummy-posts.php or similar in the plugin directory) and search for WordPress capability checks such as 'current_user_can', 'edit_posts', 'manage_options', or authorization logic before any post creation or manipulation functions.
    Affected if No capability checks (current_user_can with appropriate capabilities) are found before post creation/manipulation code, or checks are present but easily bypassed

The environment is affected if the Generate Dummy Posts plugin is active and lacks proper authorization checks on its post creation/manipulation functions, allowing unauthorized or unauthenticated users to create or modify posts.

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

Implement proper role-based access control (RBAC) and authorization checks on all plugin functions that create, modify, or delete posts, ensuring only users with appropriate capabilities (e.g., 'edit_posts') can execute these operations.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-46637 — 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-2023-46637 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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
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