Threats / WordPress / CVE-2019-9978
CVE-2019-9978
· EUVD no mirror located
· GCVE no mirror located
Verified 2026-08-04
WordPress Social Warfare Plugin vulnerability
WordPress Social Warfare plugin contains a cross-site scripting vulnerability enabling remote code execution. The flaw affects both Social Warfare and Social Warfare Pro versions.
Verdict
Today item — known-exploited.
Stored or reflected XSS in Social Warfare allows attackers to inject malicious scripts that execute in user browsers, potentially leading to session hijacking, credential theft, or site compromise through code execution.
CISA KEV Yes · 2021-11-034EPSS 0.72946 (verify live)5Exploit Weaponized · public PoC6CVSS 6.1 (CISA)3CISA SSVC Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Impact: partial3
01
Is it exploitable?
— the evidence, ranked above the scoreExploit available
Fully weaponized — public exploit code is cataloged for this vulnerability.We link the existence of the exploit; we do not host or redistribute payloads.
Reported exploitation
602 independent public reports of in-the-wild exploitation are cataloged.Distinct reporting sources (vendor, incident response, government); open them for the underlying claims.
Exploited in the wild
Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03).
Probability (EPSS)
EPSS 0.72946 — modeled likelihood of exploitation activity.EPSS is a daily-changing model output — open the source for today's value.
Severity / affected
CVSS 6.1 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N) · Affected: WordPress, Social Warfare Plugin. Confirm exact fixed builds in the vendor advisory.CVSS — CISA-assigned via the ADP container (CVE.org), version 3.1; the CNA left no metrics, so CISA's own score is used ahead of NVD.
Weakness (CWE)
Mapped to CWE-79 Cross-site Scripting (XSS) — weakness family: Web / client.CWE assignment from the public NVD record (may be stale); the weakness class drives how the flaw is exploited.
CISA SSVC (triage disposition)
Exploitation: active · Automatable: no · Technical Impact: partialCISA's own stakeholder-specific triage inputs, published in the CVE record (CISA Coordinator role). NOTE: this is CISA's three decision points; the final Act/Attend/Track decision also requires a Mission & Well-being input not published here, so no overall decision is asserted.
Currency of the record
CISA added this to its KEV catalog 955 days after the CVE record was published.KEV lag = CISA-KEV dateAdded − CVE.org datePublished; a floor on how long the known-exploited flaw sat in the public record before the federal catalog listed it. Severity/weakness here is CNA- or CISA-assigned (current at disclosure), independent of NVD's analysis backlog.
Public exploit available
Public exploit tooling is catalogued for this CVE (a public proof-of-concept / detection template). Catalog entries: nuclei template. We link the catalog page(s) only — no payload or code is hosted or restated here.Link, never host — the catalog page is the source; basicsecurity.net does not redistribute payloads.
02
Who’s exploiting it?
— attribution turns risk into urgencyAttribution not established
No confirmed (advisory-backed) threat-actor attribution is established for this record. Absence of a named actor is not absence of compromise — see Coverage & confidence.
03
Why it matters
— the attack path, told twice: adversary, then board1
Front door — unauthenticated access narrative 1
Attacker
I craft a malicious payload and inject it through a vulnerable Social Warfare parameter or social sharing feature.
Business
Website visitors are exposed to injected scripts that can steal session tokens, redirect users, or harvest credentials.
2
Keys to the kingdom — privilege/identity takeover narrative 2
Attacker
I execute arbitrary JavaScript in the context of the WordPress admin or user sessions visiting the compromised page.
Business
Administrative accounts or user data become compromised, enabling lateral movement or data exfiltration from the WordPress installation.
3
Lateral reach — past segmentation narrative 3
Attacker
I leverage the code execution capability to modify site content, inject backdoors, or establish persistent access to the WordPress environment.
Business
Site integrity is compromised, reputation is damaged, and recovery requires forensic investigation and potential data breach notification.
04
What to do
— defensible action- Remediate per the vendor advisory — confirm the fixed build for your version and verify exposure.1
Say it to the boardA vulnerability with this evidence profile is a defensible budget line, not a backlog ticket — fund the change against the proof above.
05