CVE-2023-5774: animated counters vulnerability

What is known

The Animated Counters plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the plugin's shortcode(s) in all versions up to, and including, 1.7 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on user supplied attributes. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with contributor-level and above permissions to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

Business impact

Successful exploitation of CVE-2023-5774, a medium vulnerability (CVSS 6.4) affecting animated counters, may affect the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the vulnerable environment. The exact impact depends on the installed version, exposed interfaces and deployment configuration.

Recommended administrator action

Confirm whether animated counters is present and compare installed versions with the vendor advisory and NVD record. Apply the vendor patch or documented mitigation; until remediation is complete, reduce exposure of affected interfaces, review relevant logs and monitor for indicators of exploitation. DataHouse can support version verification, managed patching, network exposure reduction, log review and backup validation for dedicated, cloud and colocated environments.

Sources

• NVD
• Reference
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• Reference