CVE-2023-23488 — paid-memberships-pro
CRITICALCVE-2023-23488 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) SQL Injection vulnerability. 3 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-23488.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2023-23488 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). In the shaded patch-first corner (EPSS 50%+, CVSS 7.0+).
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 397,508 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the ≥ 90% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Description
The Paid Memberships Pro WordPress Plugin, version < 2.9.8, is affected by an unauthenticated SQL injection vulnerability in the 'code' parameter of the '/pmpro/v1/order' REST route.
Affected Products
paid memberships prostrangerstudiosResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Paid Memberships Pro v2.9.8 (WordPress Plugin) - Unauthenticated SQL Injection
by r3nt0n · Apr 3, 2023
Detection & mitigation playbook
VulnerabilityDetect
Identify every host running the affected component and compare the installed build against the fixed version below — for source-built or distro-packaged software the version string, not a lockfile, is the source of truth (`dpkg -l`, `rpm -q`, or the binary's own `--version`).
Fix
Upgrade the affected component to the fixed release for CVE-2023-23488, or apply your distribution's backported patch — distro builds are often patched at an older version number, so check your vendor's advisory rather than the upstream version alone.
Workarounds
Until you can upgrade, make sure every query built from user input uses parameterised statements or a prepared-statement API rather than string concatenation, and reduce the database account's privileges so an injected query cannot read or alter data beyond what the feature needs.
How to detect CVE-2023-23488
A community-maintained Nuclei template exists for this CVE. You can scan for it directly:
nuclei -id cve-2023-23488 -u https://target- Template
- WordPress Paid Memberships Pro <2.9.8 - Blind SQL Injection
- Severity
- critical
- Impact
- Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to extract sensitive information from the database.
- Remediation
- Upgrade to WordPress Paid Memberships Pro version 2.9.8 or later to mitigate this vulnerability.
Template by ProjectDiscovery nuclei-templates (dwisiswant0), MIT licensed. View the full template. Scan only systems you are authorised to test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-23488 in your dependencies?
Find it across , including transitive dependencies.