CVE-2023-50854VulnerabilityPublished 28 Dec 2023Updated 2 Jun 2025

CVE-2023-50854: Squirrly SEO (WordPress plugin) · SQL Injection

Affects Squirrly SEO (WordPress plugin)Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.6 High : upgrade to 2.4.02 soon.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

7.6High

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 45% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 2.4.02

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: High
User Interaction: None
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: None
Availability: Low

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: High: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide significant (e.g., administrative) control over the vulnerable component that could affect component-wide settings and files.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Changed: An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 28 Dec 2023
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade Squirrly SEO (WordPress plugin) to 2.4.02.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Squirrly Squirrly SEO - Advanced Pack	Affected <2.4.02	Fixed in 2.4.02

AI-suggested

European organizations should immediately audit their WordPress installations to identify if the Squirrly SEO - Advanced Pack plugin is installed and determine the version in use. If you cannot patch yet, organizations should consider the following specific mitigations: 1) Restrict administrative access to trusted personnel only and enforce strong authentication mechanisms such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce the risk of privilege escalation. 2) Employ Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block SQL injection patterns targeting this plugin. 3) Conduct thorough code reviews and consider temporarily disabling or uninstalling the plugin if it is not critical to business operations. 4) Monitor logs for unusual database queries or access patterns that could indicate exploitation attempts. 6) Implement database least privilege principles, ensuring the WordPress database user has only necessary permissions to limit the impact of SQL injection. These measures go beyond generic advice by focusing on privilege management, monitoring, and proactive plugin management tailored to this vulnerability.

Description

Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') vulnerability in Squirrly Squirrly SEO - Advanced Pack.This issue affects Squirrly SEO - Advanced Pack: from n/a before 2.4.02.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability can be significant, especially for those relying on WordPress websites using the Squirrly SEO - Advanced Pack plugin. Exploitation could lead to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive data stored in the backend database, including potentially customer information, business intelligence, or configuration details. Given the high confidentiality impact, data breaches could result in GDPR violations, leading to regulatory fines and reputational damage. Although the vulnerability requires high privileges, if an attacker compromises an administrative account or leverages other vulnerabilities to escalate privileges, they could exploit this SQL injection to extract data. The low availability impact means service disruption is unlikely, but data confidentiality loss is the primary concern. This could affect e-commerce platforms, corporate websites, and digital marketing agencies across Europe that use this plugin. The absence of known exploits in the wild provides a window for mitigation before active exploitation occurs.

CWE-89Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection') (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #2OWASP Top 10 A05:2025: Injection (opens in a new tab)
The product constructs all or part of an SQL command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended SQL command when it is sent to a downstream component. Without sufficient removal or quoting of SQL syntax in user-controllable inputs, the generated SQL query can cause those inputs to be interpreted as SQL instead of ordinary user data.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Architecture and Design · Parameterization
If available, use structured mechanisms that automatically enforce the separation between data and code. These mechanisms may be able to provide the relevant quoting, encoding, and validation automatically, instead of relying on the developer to provide this capability at every point where output is generated.
Architecture and Design · Operation · Environment Hardening
Run your code using the lowest privileges that are required to accomplish the necessary tasks. If possible, create isolated accounts with limited privileges that are only used for a single task. That way, a successful attack will not immediately give the attacker access to the rest of the software or its environment.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Query Parameterization (opens in a new tab)
Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards (opens in a new tab)
XML Security (opens in a new tab)
XML External Entity Prevention (opens in a new tab)
File Upload (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V5.3.4 (opens in a new tab)
V5.3.5 (opens in a new tab)
V1.5.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Command Line Execution through SQL Injection (opens in a new tab)
Object Relational Mapping Injection (opens in a new tab)
SQL Injection through SOAP Parameter Tampering (opens in a new tab)
Expanding Control over the Operating System from the Database (opens in a new tab)
SQL Injection (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

patchstack.com/database/vulnerability/squirrly-seo-pack/wordpress-squirrly-seo-advanced-pack-plugin-2-3-8-sql-injection-vulnerability?_s_id=cve (opens in a new tab)

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 3 Jul 2025, 17:56 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-89

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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