CVE-2023-0993 — The Shield Security plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Missing Authorization

The Shield Security plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Missing Authorization on the 'theme-plugin-file' AJAX action in versions up to, and including, 17.0.17. This allows authenticated attackers to add arbitrary audit log entries indicating that a theme or plugin has

01What is this vulnerability?

The Shield Security plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Missing Authorization on the 'theme-plugin-file' AJAX action in versions up to, and including, 17.0.17. This allows authenticated attackers to add arbitrary audit log entries indicating that a theme or plugin has been edited, and is also a vector for Cross-Site Scripting via CVE-2023-0992.

02Affected products

No structured affected-product list available — see references below for vendor advisories.

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

08Timeline

• Published: 2023-06-09T06:15:55.063
• Last modified: 2026-04-08T18:17:51.537

09References

• plugins.trac.wordpress.org — https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&new…
• wordpress.org — https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-simple-firewall/
• www.wordfence.com — https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2023/04/multiple-vulnerabilities-patched-in-shiel…
• www.wordfence.com — https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/674461ad-9b61-48c4-af2…
• plugins.trac.wordpress.org — https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&new…
• wordpress.org — https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-simple-firewall/
• www.wordfence.com — https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/674461ad-9b61-48c4-af2…