# CVE-2019-17233: Ultimate FAQs Plugin - XSS

> Live exploitation tracking for CVE-2019-17233 by the CrowdSec Live Exploit Tracker, built from real-world attack data crowdsourced from CrowdSec's global network.

Page: https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2019-17233

## Key facts

- **Exploitation phase:** Limited Exploitation. The vulnerability is known but shows very limited attacker interest or exploitation activity.
- **CVSS score:** 6.1
- **Public exploit available:** Yes
- **Affected products:** Etoile Web Design ultimate-faqs
- **Weaknesses:** CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting'))
- **Tags:** cms

## Description

Functions/EWD_UFAQ_Import.php in the ultimate-faqs plugin through 1.8.24 for WordPress allows HTML content injection.

## CrowdSec analysis

[CVE-2019-17233](https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/vulnerability/CVE-2019-17233) is a vulnerability in the ultimate-faqs plugin for WordPress (up to version 1.8.24) that allows attackers to inject arbitrary HTML content via the EWD_UFAQ_Import.php function. This flaw could be exploited to perform attacks such as defacement, phishing, or injecting malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users.

CrowdSec has been tracking this vulnerability and its exploits since 24th of September 2025.

Insights from the CrowdSec network reveal that the attackers trying to exploit CVE-2019-17233 are composed of a fairly even mix of opportunistic and targeted actors. Some attackers employ preliminary reconnaissance, while others use indiscriminate scanning.
CrowdSec network telemetry also shows that exploitation of CVE-2019-17233 has significantly declined over the past week. Attack volumes are well below the long-term average, suggesting attackers are rapidly losing interest. The vulnerability appears to be falling out of active use across most threat landscapes.

Attackers exploit the `/wp-admin/admin.php?page=EWD-UFAQ-Options&DisplayPage=ImportPosts&Action=EWD_UFAQ_ImportFaqsFromSpreadsheet` endpoint to upload malicious CSV files, resulting in HTML content injection that is later rendered via the `/?ufaq=` parameter on the public site.

## Timeline

- 2019-10-07: CVE Published. CVE-2019-17233 is published to NVD.
- 2025-09-24: Rule Released. CrowdSec releases a rule to detect CVE-2019-17233 exploitation attempts against the CrowdSec Network.
- 2025-09-25: CrowdSec First Seen. CrowdSec observes in-the-wild exploitation of CVE-2019-17233 for the first time.

## References

- https://wordpress.org/plugins/ultimate-faqs/#developers
- https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2019/CVE-2019-17233.yaml

## Live exploitation data

The [Live Exploit Tracker page](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2019-17233) follows observed exploitation activity for CVE-2019-17233. [Request an API key](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/request-api-key) for full access to its exploitation timeline, attacking IP addresses and blocklists.