dbcve.org
Scheduling PluginWordPress extension · Startbooking

CVE-2024-23517

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-02-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 3.5.10 or later.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable

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
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in Start Booking Scheduling Plugin – Online Booking for WordPress allows Stored XSS.This issue affects Scheduling Plugin – Online Booking for WordPress: from n/a through 3.5.10.

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

This is a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Start Booking Scheduling Plugin for WordPress. The plugin fails to properly sanitize user input before displaying it in web pages, allowing attackers to inject malicious JavaScript that executes in browsers of users who view the affected content.

MitigationUpdate the plugin to version 3.5.10 or later once a patched version is released by the vendor. If no patched version is available, implement proper input validation and output encoding using WordPress sanitization functions such as esc_html(), esc_attr(), and wp_kses() on all user-supplied data 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
Scheduling PluginWordPress extension
Affected:<= 3.5.10

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
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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. Verify Startbooking plugin is installed
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'Startbooking' or 'Start Booking Scheduling Plugin' in the list of active plugins
    Affected if The plugin appears in the installed plugins list
  2. Check installed plugin version
    In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins, find Startbooking plugin, and note the version number displayed below the plugin name. Alternatively, check the plugin's main PHP file for the 'Version' header in the plugin comment block
    Affected if Version is 3.5.10 or lower
  3. Identify user input points
    Review the plugin settings and frontend booking forms to find where users can submit input (such as name, email, phone, booking notes, or other form fields)
    Affected if The plugin accepts user-submitted data through any input field
  4. Inspect stored data rendering
    View the source HTML of pages where booking information is displayed (such as admin booking lists or user confirmation pages). Look for instances where user input appears without proper HTML encoding (e.g., check if < and > characters are rendered as literal text or as actual HTML tags)
    Affected if User-supplied data is rendered in HTML contexts without escaping (visible <script> tags, unencoded quotes in attributes, or unescaped special characters)
  5. Test for XSS via booking form
    Submit a test booking with a harmless test string containing special characters like <script>alert('test')</script> in available form fields, then view the booking in the admin panel or frontend to see if the script executes or appears unescaped in the page source
    Affected if The submitted test string appears as raw HTML/script or triggers JavaScript execution when viewing the stored booking data

You are affected if the Startbooking Scheduling Plugin is installed with version 3.5.10 or lower and any user-submitted booking data is displayed without HTML entity encoding.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 3.5.10
Interim mitigation

Update the plugin to version 3.5.10 or later once a patched version is released by the vendor. If no patched version is available, implement proper input validation and output encoding using WordPress sanitization functions such as esc_html(), esc_attr(), and wp_kses() on all user-supplied data before rendering.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

3.5.11 or later (latest release)

  1. Backup your WordPress site (database and files).
  2. Navigate to WP Admin > Plugins and locate the 'Scheduling Plugin – Online Booking for WordPress'.
  3. Update the plugin to the latest available version (currently 3.5.11 or newer).
  4. Alternatively, use WP-CLI: wp plugin update scheduling-plugin (or the plugin's slug).
  5. After updating, verify that the stored XSS vulnerability is fixed by testing the affected input fields (e.g., appointment name, description) with a harmless XSS payload.
  6. Monitor the site for any unexpected behavior.

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Scheduling Plugin Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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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-2024-23517 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