WordPress theme

Multiple Themes (Various Versions) — Cross-Site Request Forgery to Arbitrary Plugin Activation

CVE-2023-33923Published May 30, 2023 · Updated Nov 13, 2026

Viral News: Affected: ≤1.4.5Update to 1.4.6 or newer

HashOne: Affected: ≤1.3.0Update to 1.3.1 or newer

Viral: Affected: ≤1.8.0Update to 1.8.1 or newer

All remediation steps

Watch theme

Medium4.3CVSS 3.14.3CISA KEVNot listedAccessNo account needed

On this page3

Overview

Advisory ID: CVE-2023-33923
Product: Viral News viral-news
Affected: Viral News: ≤1.4.5
HashOne: ≤1.3.0
Viral: ≤1.8.0
Fixed in: 1.4.6 · 1.3.1 · 1.8.1
Weakness: CWE-352 CSRF
Required access: No account needed
Published: May 30, 2023 · updated Nov 13, 2026
Credit: Dave Jong
Source: Wordfence Intelligence

Affected≤ 1.4.5
Patched in1.4.6

Affected≤ 1.3.0
Patched in1.3.1

Affected≤ 1.8.0
Patched in1.8.1

4.3

CVSS 3.1 · CNA (Wordfence)

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

What does this vector mean?

AV:N Attack vector: Network
AC:L Attack complexity: Low
PR:N Privileges required: None
UI:R User interaction: Required
S:U Scope: Unchanged
C:N Confidentiality: None
I:L Integrity: Low
A:N Availability: None

Several themes for WordPress are vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery due to missing nonce validation on the activate_plugin() function called via an AJAX action in various versions of the themes. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to activate arbitrary plugins via a forged request, if they can trick an authenticated user into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

Not sure which version you run? Run a passive check — it reads public files only.

Remediation & mitigations

Update to version 1.4.6, or a newer patched version
Update to version 1.3.1, or a newer patched version
Update to version 1.8.1, or a newer patched version
Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.

References & provenance

Proof-of-concept & detection

No public proof-of-concept or detection template is known for this vulnerability.

Advisories & patches

Advisorywordfence.com

Related CVEs

4.3154a838c-f8bb-4568-b066-a78264c75eeaMissing Authorization to Arbitrary Plugin Activation

All 2 in Viral News

Timeline

May 30, 2023
CVE published
Severity medium, CVSS 4.3
Nov 13, 2026
Record last updated

Sources & licenses

Wordfence record

Vulnerability data: Wordfence Intelligence. Copyright 2012-2026 Defiant Inc. Licensed under the CC BY-SA 4.0.
CVE® identifiers: Copyright 1999-2026 The MITRE Corporation. Used under the CVE Program. CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation.
CVSS / CWE: National Vulnerability Database (NVD), shown unmodified. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

How we use these sources