CVE-2023-40000
published 2024-04-16CVE-2023-40000: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in LiteSpeed Technologies LiteSpeed Cache allows Stored…
PriorityP180medium6.1CVSS 3.1
AVNACLPRNUIRSCCLILAN
ITWEXPLOITVulnCheck KEV
Exploited in the wild
EPSS
54.87%
98.9th percentile
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in LiteSpeed Technologies LiteSpeed Cache allows Stored XSS.This issue affects LiteSpeed Cache: from n/a through 5.7.
Affected
2 ranges
| Vendor | Product | Version range | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| litespeed_technologies | litespeed_cache | n/a – 5.7 | — |
| litespeedtech | litespeed_cache | < 5.7.0.1 | 5.7.0.1 |
Detection & IOCsextracted from sources · hover to see the quote
path/wp-content/plugins/litespeed-cache/readme.txt
url/wp-admin/admin.php?page=litespeed-cdn
- →Probe for vulnerable plugin version by checking the readme.txt file for 'Stable tag' version <= 5.7.0.1
- →Exploitation targets the unauthenticated POST endpoint /wp-json/litespeed/v1/cdn_status to inject stored XSS payload via the 'result[_msg]' parameter
- →Check the WordPress database option 'litespeed.admin_display.messages' for the presence of 'eval(atob(Strings.fromCharCode' as an indicator of compromise ↗
- →Monitor for creation of WordPress administrator accounts named 'wpsupp-user' or 'wp-configuser' as post-exploitation indicators ↗
- →Monitor for high-volume scanning activity (>1M requests) from single IPs targeting /wp-json/litespeed/v1/cdn_status or plugin readme.txt paths ↗
- →Injected XSS payload is stored and triggers in the WordPress admin panel at /wp-admin/admin.php?page=litespeed-cdn
- ·Vulnerability only affects LiteSpeed Cache versions up to and including 5.7; version 5.7.0.1 and later are patched ↗
- ·As of reporting, up to 1,835,000 sites were still running a vulnerable release despite the patch being available ↗
- ·The XSS payload is stored in the database and executes in the browsers of all WordPress admin users who visit the affected admin page, not just the triggering user
CVSS provenance
nvdv3.16.1MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
vulncheck8.3HIGH
CVEs like this are exactly what “Exploited This Week” covers.
Every Monday: what got weaponized or added to CISA KEV in the last seven days — each CVE cross-linked to its PoC, Nuclei template, and detection rule. Free, one email a week, unsubscribe in one click.
GHSA
GHSA-fvp6-8p9w-vffq: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in LiteSpeed Technologies LiteSpeed Cache allows St
ghsa_unreviewed·2024-04-16
CVE-2023-40000 [HIGH] CWE-79 GHSA-fvp6-8p9w-vffq: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in LiteSpeed Technologies LiteSpeed Cache allows St
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in LiteSpeed Technologies LiteSpeed Cache allows Stored XSS.This issue affects LiteSpeed Cache: from n/a through 5.7.
VulnCheck
LiteSpeed Cache Web Page Generation Cross Site Scripting
vulncheck·2023·CVSS 8.3
CVE-2023-40000 [HIGH] LiteSpeed Cache Web Page Generation Cross Site Scripting
LiteSpeed Cache Web Page Generation Cross Site Scripting
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in LiteSpeed Technologies LiteSpeed Cache allows Stored XSS.This issue affects LiteSpeed Cache: from n/a through 5.7.
Affected: LiteSpeed Technologies LiteSpeed Cache
Required Action: Apply remediations or mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if remediation or mitigations are unavailable.
Exploitation References: https://wpscan.com/blog/surge-of-javascript-malware-in-sites-with-vulnerable-versions-of-litespeed-cache-plugin/; https://www.fastly.com/blog/active-exploitation-unauthenticated-stored-xss-vulnerabilities-wordpress/; https://app.crowdsec.net/cti/cve-explorer/CVE-2023-40000
Exploit PoC: http
No detection rules found.
Nuclei
LiteSpeed Cache <= 5.7 - Unauthenticated Stored XSS
nuclei·CVSS 6.1
CVE-2023-40000 [MEDIUM] LiteSpeed Cache <= 5.7 - Unauthenticated Stored XSS
LiteSpeed Cache <= 5.7 - Unauthenticated Stored XSS
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in LiteSpeed Technologies LiteSpeed Cache allows Stored XSS.This issue affects LiteSpeed Cache- from n/a through 5.7.
Template:
id: CVE-2023-40000
info:
name: LiteSpeed Cache <= 5.7 - Unauthenticated Stored XSS
author: 0x_Akoko
severity: high
description: |
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in LiteSpeed Technologies LiteSpeed Cache allows Stored XSS.This issue affects LiteSpeed Cache- from n/a through 5.7.
impact: |
Unauthenticated attackers can inject stored XSS through the CDN status endpoint, allowing them to execute JavaScript in all WordPress admin users' browsers, pot
Bleepingcomputer
LiteSpeed Cache WordPress plugin bug lets hackers get admin access
blogs_bleepingcomputer·2024-10-31·CVSS 9.8
CVE-2024-50550 [CRITICAL] LiteSpeed Cache WordPress plugin bug lets hackers get admin access
## LiteSpeed Cache WordPress plugin bug lets hackers get admin access
## Bill Toulas
The free version of the popular WordPress plugin LiteSpeed Cache has fixed a dangerous privilege elevation flaw on its latest release that could allow unauthenticated site visitors to gain admin rights.
LiteSpeed Cache is a caching plugin used by over six million WordPress sites, helping to speed up and improve user browsing experience.
The newly discovered high-severity flaw tracked as CVE-2024-50550 is caused by a weak hash check in the plugin's "role simulation" feature, designed to simulate user roles to aid the crawler in site scans from different user levels.
The feature's function ('is_role_simulation()') performs two primary checks using weak security hash values stored in cookies ('litespeed_
Bleepingcomputer
LiteSpeed Cache bug exposes 6 million WordPress sites to takeover attacks
blogs_bleepingcomputer·2024-09-05·CVSS 9.8
CVE-2024-44000 [CRITICAL] LiteSpeed Cache bug exposes 6 million WordPress sites to takeover attacks
## LiteSpeed Cache bug exposes 6 million WordPress sites to takeover attacks
## Bill Toulas
Yet, another critical severity vulnerability has been discovered in LiteSpeed Cache, a caching plugin for speeding up user browsing in over 6 million WordPress sites.
The flaw, tracked as CVE-2024-44000 and categorized as an unauthenticated account takeover issue, was discovered by Patchstack's Rafie Muhammad on August 22, 2024. A fix was made available yesterday with the release of LiteSpeed Cache version 6.5.0.1.
## Debug feature writes cookies to file
The vulnerability is tied to the plugin's debug logging feature, which logs all HTTP response headers into a file, including the "Set-Cookie" header, when enabled.
Those headers contain session cookies used to authenticate users, so if an atta
Bleepingcomputer
Hackers are exploiting critical bug in LiteSpeed Cache plugin
blogs_bleepingcomputer·2024-08-22·CVSS 8.3
CVE-2024-28000 [HIGH] Hackers are exploiting critical bug in LiteSpeed Cache plugin
## Hackers are exploiting critical bug in LiteSpeed Cache plugin
## Bill Toulas
Hackers have already started to exploit the critical severity vulnerability that affects LiteSpeed Cache, a WordPress plugin used for accelerating response times, a day after technical details become public.
The security issue is tracked as CVE-2024-28000 and allows escalating privileges without authentication in all versions of the WordPress plugin up to 6.3.0.1.
The vulnerability stems from a weak hash check in the plugin’s user simulation feature which can be exploited by attackers brute-forcing the hash value to create rogue admin accounts.
This could lead to a complete takeover of the affected websites, allowing the installation of malicious plugins, altering critical settings, redirecting traffic to
Bleepingcomputer
Litespeed Cache bug exposes millions of WordPress sites to takeover attacks
blogs_bleepingcomputer·2024-08-21·CVSS 9.8
[CRITICAL] Litespeed Cache bug exposes millions of WordPress sites to takeover attacks
## Litespeed Cache bug exposes millions of WordPress sites to takeover attacks
## Sergiu Gatlan
A critical vulnerability in the LiteSpeed Cache WordPress plugin can let attackers take over millions of websites after creating rogue admin accounts.
LiteSpeed Cache is open-source and the most popular WordPress site acceleration plugin, with over 5 million active installations and support for WooCommerce, bbPress, ClassicPress, and Yoast SEO.
The unauthenticated privilege escalation vulnerability ( CVE-2024-28000 ) was found in the plugin's user simulation feature and is caused by a weak hash check in LiteSpeed Cache up to and including version 6.3.0.1.
Security researcher John Blackbourn submitted the flaw to Patchstack's bug bounty program on August 1. The LiteSpeed team developed a pat
Bleepingcomputer
Hackers exploit LiteSpeed Cache flaw to create WordPress admins
blogs_bleepingcomputer·2024-05-07·CVSS 8.3
[HIGH] Hackers exploit LiteSpeed Cache flaw to create WordPress admins
## Hackers exploit LiteSpeed Cache flaw to create WordPress admins
## Bill Toulas
Hackers have been targeting WordPress sites with an outdated version of the LiteSpeed Cache plugin to create administrator users and gain control of the websites.
LiteSpeed Cache (LS Cache) is advertised as a caching plugin used in over five million WordPress sites that helps speed up page loads, improve visitor experience, and boost Google Search ranking.
Automattic's security team, WPScan , observed in April increased activity from threat actors scanning for and compromising WordPress sites with versions of the plugin older than 5.7.0.1, which are vulnerable to a high-severity (8.8) unauthenticated cross-site scripting flaw tracked as CVE-2023-40000.
From one IP address, 94[.]102[.]51[.]144, there were
Greynoiseio
NoiseLetter April 2025
blogs_greynoiseio
NoiseLetter April 2025
CVE Disclosure Early Warning Get an early warning when traffic spikes indicate a high likelihood of new disclosures
Compromised Asset Detection Find out immediately if an asset communicates with a malicious IP address
Vulnerability Prioritization Get real-time insight into active exploitation trends to better understand risk and severity
SOC Efficiency Filter out noisy, low priority and false-positive alerts from mass internet scanners
Incident Investigation Add context to incidents to speed the determinations of scope and timelines
Threat Hunting Quickly identify anomalous behavior and enrich your threat hunting campaigns
Why GreyNoise
CVE Disclosure Early Warning Get an early warning when traffic spikes indicate a high likelihood of new disclosures
Compromised Asset Detection Fin
https://patchstack.com/database/vulnerability/litespeed-cache/wordpress-litespeed-cache-plugin-5-7-unauthenticated-site-wide-stored-xss-vulnerability?_s_id=cvehttps://patchstack.com/database/vulnerability/litespeed-cache/wordpress-litespeed-cache-plugin-5-7-unauthenticated-site-wide-stored-xss-vulnerability?_s_id=cvehttps://github.com/rxerium/CVE-2023-40000
2024-04-16
Published
Exploited in the wild