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Category Post List WidgetWordPress extension · Starkdigital

CVE-2023-47516

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-11-13
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.0 or later.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

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
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Stark Digital Category Post List Widget allows Stored XSS.This issue affects Category Post List Widget: from n/a through 2.0.

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 · high confidence

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Stark Digital Category Post List Widget allows attackers to inject malicious scripts through stored XSS. The widget lacks proper CSRF protection, enabling attackers to trick authenticated administrators into executing unintended actions that store malicious JavaScript payloads in the widget configuration, which then executes when other users view the affected pages.

MitigationImplement anti-CSRF tokens on all state-changing operations in the widget and apply proper input sanitization and output encoding to prevent stored XSS. Use WordPress nonces for form submissions and sanitize all user-supplied data before storage and before rendering.

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
Category Post List WidgetWordPress extension
Affected:<= 2.0

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
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/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. Identify if Stark Digital Category Post List Widget is installed
    Navigate to WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets and look for 'Starkdigital Category Post List Widget' in the available widgets list, or check your plugins directory for the starkdigital-category-post-list-widget folder
    Affected if The widget appears in the available widgets list or the plugin folder exists on the server
  2. Determine the installed widget version
    If the plugin is installed, check the plugin header in starkdigital-category-post-list-widget.php or the plugin details page in WordPress admin under Plugins > Installed Plugins for the version number
    Affected if The version number is 2.0 or lower, or the version cannot be determined (indicating an outdated installation)
  3. Verify if the widget is actively used
    Check all active widget areas (Appearance > Widgets) for any instances of the Starkdigital Category Post List Widget that have been added to sidebars
    Affected if The widget is actively placed in any sidebar or widgetized area on the site
  4. Inspect widget configuration for malicious payloads
    Examine the database option records in the wp_options table for widget_* entries, or view the widget settings in the admin panel, looking for any script tags, javascript: URIs, or unusual HTML attributes in title, category, or post count fields
    Affected if Unexpected JavaScript code, script tags, or encoded content appears in any configuration field of the widget
  5. Check for missing CSRF nonce protection in form submissions
    If you have access to the source code, examine the widget's PHP files for the presence of wp_verify_nonce or check_admin_referer calls in any form handling code, or inspect form submissions from the widget for a nonce field
    Affected if No nonce verification is found in the widget's form handling code, or forms lack a hidden nonce field

Your environment is affected if the Stark Digital Category Post List Widget version 2.0 or lower is installed, actively used on your site, and lacks proper CSRF nonce protection in its configuration forms.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.0
Interim mitigation

Implement anti-CSRF tokens on all state-changing operations in the widget and apply proper input sanitization and output encoding to prevent stored XSS. Use WordPress nonces for form submissions and sanitize all user-supplied data before storage and before rendering.

Fix this in Category Post List Widget Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,176.

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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-2023-47516 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data