How severe is CVE-2019-9978?

CVE-2019-9978 has a CVSS score of 6.1/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2019-9978?

Affected package information for CVE-2019-9978 is not yet fully mapped. Check the official advisory links for details.

How do I fix CVE-2019-9978?

No fixed version has been published for CVE-2019-9978 yet. Monitor the advisory for updates, apply mitigations recommended by the vendor, and use O3 Security to track when a fix becomes available in your stack.

Is CVE-2019-9978 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 19 known exploit references for CVE-2019-9978, including 2 documented proof-of-concept exploits on Exploit-DB and 11 in-the-wild exploitations observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2019-9978?

CVE-2019-9978 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 88.7%, placing it in the 100th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A score above 50% indicates significantly elevated exploitation risk — immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Is CVE-2019-9978 in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog?

Yes. CVE-2019-9978 (WordPress Social Warfare Plugin Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Vulnerability) was added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 2021-11-03. CISA required all US federal civilian agencies to remediate this vulnerability by 2022-05-03. The required action was: Apply updates per vendor instructions. Being listed in the KEV catalog is the strongest possible confirmation of active exploitation — treat this as a critical priority.

Is there exploit tooling available for CVE-2019-9978?

A Nuclei detection template exists for CVE-2019-9978, meaning automated scanners can fingerprint it. Public exploit tooling significantly increases real-world risk — prioritize patching and ensure detection coverage. Exploit tooling should only ever be used in isolated, authorized testing environments.

When was CVE-2019-9978 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2019-9978 was published on March 24, 2019 and was last updated on April 10, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

CISA KEV·Added 2021-11-03 — agencies required to remediate by 2022-05-03

CVE-2019-9978

MEDIUM

Published

Mar 24, 2019

Updated

Apr 10, 2026

Affected

0 pkgs

Patched

None yet

Exploits

19 known

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

88.7%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Very High Risk100th percentile0.00%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Description

The social-warfare plugin before 3.5.3 for WordPress has stored XSS via the wp-admin/admin-post.php?swp_debug=load_options swp_url parameter, as exploited in the wild in March 2019. This affects Social Warfare and Social Warfare Pro.

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

EDB-46794webappsphp

WordPress Plugin Social Warfare < 3.5.3 - Remote Code Execution

by hash3liZer · May 3, 2019

Exploit-DB Source

EDB-52346webappsmultiple

Social Warfare WordPress Plugin 3.5.2 - Remote Code Execution (RCE)

by Huseyin Mardinli · Jun 26, 2025

Exploit-DB Source

Frequently Asked Questions

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is CVE-2019-9978 in your stack?

O3 detects CVE-2019-9978 across dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my stack How O3 SCA works

CVSS Score

6.1/10

CVSS v3 base score

Vector breakdown

AV:Attack Vector

Network

AC:Attack Complexity

Low

PR:Privileges Required

None

UI:User Interaction

Required

S:Scope

Changed

C:Confidentiality

Low

I:Integrity

Low

A:Availability

None

Raw vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Weaponization

Timeline

Disclosed

Mar 24, 2019

First exploit

May 3, 2019

KEV added

Nov 3, 2021

Last updated

Apr 10, 2026

Identifiers

CVE-2019-9978

References

Advisorytwitter.com Advisorywpvulndb.com Advisorywordfence.com Advisoryexploit-db.com Articleseclists.org Webwordpress.org Webcisa.gov Evidencepacketstormsecurity.com Evidenceblog.sucuri.net Evidencepluginvulnerabilities.com Evidencecybersecurity-help.cz Evidencepacketstormsecurity.com

Data from OSV.dev, enriched by O3 Security. Refreshed hourly.