# CVE-2023-23488: Paid Memberships Pro - SQLi

> Live exploitation tracking for CVE-2023-23488 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-2023-23488

## Key facts

- **Exploitation phase:** Limited Exploitation. The vulnerability is known but shows very limited attacker interest or exploitation activity.
- **CVSS score:** 9.8
- **Public exploit available:** Yes
- **Affected products:** Stranger Studios Paid Memberships Pro WordPress Plugin
- **Weaknesses:** CWE-89 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an SQL Command ('SQL Injection'))
- **Tags:** cms, wordpress

## Description

The Paid Memberships Pro WordPress Plugin, version < 2.9.8, is affected by an unauthenticated SQL injection vulnerability in the 'code' parameter of the '/pmpro/v1/order' REST route.

## CrowdSec analysis

[CVE-2023-23488](https://euvd.enisa.europa.eu/vulnerability/CVE-2023-23488) is a vulnerability in the Paid Memberships Pro plugin for WordPress that exposes sites to unauthenticated SQL injection through the plugin's order management REST endpoint.

CrowdSec has been tracking this vulnerability and its exploits since 14th of May 2024.

Data from the CrowdSec community indicates that exploitation of CVE-2023-23488 is highly selective and intelligence-driven. Threat actors use advanced reconnaissance and carefully choose their targets, often as part of sophisticated campaigns or advanced persistent threat operations.
CrowdSec network telemetry also shows that exploitation of CVE-2023-23488 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.

Exploitation typically targets the `/pmpro/v1/order` API route in vulnerable WordPress installations.

## Timeline

- 2023-01-20: CVE Published. CVE-2023-23488 is published to NVD.
- 2024-05-14: Rule Released. CrowdSec releases a rule to detect CVE-2023-23488 exploitation attempts against the CrowdSec Network.
- 2024-12-04: CrowdSec First Seen. CrowdSec observes in-the-wild exploitation of CVE-2023-23488 for the first time.

## References

- https://www.tenable.com/security/research/tra-2023-2
- https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2023/CVE-2023-23488.yaml

## Live exploitation data

The [Live Exploit Tracker page](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/cves/CVE-2023-23488) follows observed exploitation activity for CVE-2023-23488. [Request an API key](https://tracker.crowdsec.net/request-api-key) for full access to its exploitation timeline, attacking IP addresses and blocklists.