CVE-2019-9978
The social-warfare plugin before 3.5.3 for WordPress has stored XSS via the wp-admin/admin-post.php?swp_debug=load_options swp_url parameter, as exploited in the wild in March 2019. This affects Social Warfare and Social Warfare Pro.
- CVSS
- 6.1Mediumscored by CISA
- Exploited in the wild
- Yes, in CISA KEV since 3 Nov 2021CISA deadline for US federal agencies: 3 May 2022public exploit code
- EPSS
- 72.9%chance of exploitation in the next 30 daystop 0.6% of scored CVEsFIRST score of 11 Nov 2026
- Fix
- Not stated by the vendorno fixed release in the CVE record
- Published
- 24 Mar 2019analysed here 12 Nov 2026
Do first. Apply updates per vendor instructions. (CISA's required action for this KEV entry)
Summary
Triage
The summary, impact and action text on this page are written by our AI analysis pipeline, or taken from the NVD description when a CVE was imported from NVD. They are not the vendor's wording: check them against the sources. A longer AI executive summary and technical analysis are generated for signed-in accounts on the Max plan.
Affected products
Products named in our analysis
- warfareplugins:social_warfare
- warfareplugins:social_warfare_pro
Fix and mitigation
WAF and other mitigations
Can a WAF block it? Yes. Cross-site scripting sends script tags or event handlers in the request, which WAF signatures match well.
Also consider: CSP · output encoding
Based on the weakness type only; no CVE-specific evidence yet. We check Cloudflare, AWS, Google Cloud Armor and Azure; for Akamai, Imperva, Fastly, F5, ask your vendor.
Remediation steps (AI-written)
Step-by-step remediation is generated for accounts on the Max plan, for CVEs that match a technology in their stack. Add this technology to your stack to see the fix checklist.
Exploitation evidence
- CISA KEV catalog
- Listed since 3 Nov 2021.
- CISA due date
- 3 May 2022, the remediation deadline for US federal agencies
- CISA required action
- Apply updates per vendor instructions.
- Public exploit code
- Yes: 2 on Exploit-DB · 17 GitHub proofs of concept · 1 Nuclei template
- CISA SSVC
- exploitation active, automatable no, technical impact partialAssessed by CISA 7 Feb 2025 (SSVC 2.0.3). Exploitation is none, poc (public proof of concept) or active.
Exploit-DB
- Social Warfare WordPress Plugin 3.5.2 - Remote Code Execution (RCE)webapps, 26 Jun 2025
- WordPress Plugin Social Warfare < 3.5.3 - Remote Code Executionwebapps, 3 May 2019
Nuclei
- WordPress Social Warfare <3.5.3 - Cross-Site Scriptingdetection template, medium
GitHub proofs of concept
- hash3liZer/CVE-2019-997822 stars
- mpgn/CVE-2019-99788 stars
- KTN1990/CVE-2019-99786 stars
- grimlockx/CVE-2019-99784 stars
and 13 more repositories
Listed so you can judge urgency, not as a recommendation to run anything. GitHub “proofs of concept” are unvetted: some are fake or carry malware. Exploit-DB marks the entries its staff verified.
Timeline
- 24 Mar 2019Published
- 25 Mar 2019First public exploit or proof of conceptsame day later
- 3 Nov 2021Added to CISA KEV (exploited in the wild)954 days (about 3 years) later
- 3 May 2022CISA remediation due date (US federal agencies)181 days (about 6 months) later
- 7 Feb 2025CISA SSVC assessment: exploitation active1,012 days (about 3 years) later
- 21 Oct 2025CVE record last updated256 days (about 9 months) later
- 12 Nov 2026Analysed by vulneraibility.com387 days (about 1 year) later
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
| Metric | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Attack vector | NetworkReachable over the internet or any routable network. | Reachable over the internet or any routable network. |
| Attack complexity | LowRepeatable attack, no special conditions. | Repeatable attack, no special conditions. |
| Privileges required | NoneThe attacker needs no prior access. | The attacker needs no prior access. |
| User interaction | RequiredA victim must click, open or otherwise cooperate. | A victim must click, open or otherwise cooperate. |
| Scope | ChangedImpact crosses a security boundary into other components. | Impact crosses a security boundary into other components. |
| Confidentiality | LowPartial data disclosure. | Partial data disclosure. |
| Integrity | LowLimited modification possible. | Limited modification possible. |
| Availability | NoneThe service stays up. | The service stays up. |
Common questions
Is CVE-2019-9978 being exploited?
Yes. CVE-2019-9978 appears in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which means exploitation in the wild has been confirmed and reported. Treat it as active rather than theoretical, and patch it ahead of higher-scoring vulnerabilities that carry no exploitation evidence.
How severe is CVE-2019-9978?
CVE-2019-9978 is rated Medium with a CVSS score of 6.1. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2019-9978?
Not known from our data. No patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2019-9978, which is not the same as no patch existing — a fix may have shipped without a tagged reference, or after this record was written. The vendor advisory is the only authority on whether a fix exists, and mitigations may be available regardless.
What does CVE-2019-9978 affect?
CVE-2019-9978 affects warfareplugins:social_warfare, warfareplugins:social_warfare_pro. Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
References
12 references in the CVE record, grouped by the tags the record gives them.
Exploits (1)
- exploit-db.com /exploits/46794/
Other links (11)
- wpvulndb.com /vulnerabilities/9238
- cybersecurity-help.cz /vdb/SB2019032105
- blog.sucuri.net /2019/03/zero-day-stored-xss-in-social-warfare.html
- wordfence.com /blog/2019/03/unpatched-zero-day-vulnerability-in-social-warfare-plugin-exploite
- pluginvulnerabilities.com /2019/03/21/full-disclosure-of-settings-change-persistent-cross-site-scripting-x
- wordpress.org /plugins/social-warfare/#developers
Show 5 more
- twitter.com /warfareplugins/status/1108852747099652099
- packetstormsecurity.com /files/152722/Wordpress-Social-Warfare-Remote-Code-Execution.html
- packetstormsecurity.com /files/163680/WordPress-Social-Warfare-3.5.2-Remote-Code-Execution.html
- seclists.org /fulldisclosure/2025/Jun/1
- cisa.gov /known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2019-9978
Where the data on this page comes from
- CVE List (CVE.org): description, affected versions, references; CVE Terms of Use
- NVD: CVSS and CPE data
- CISA KEV catalog: exploitation, date added, due date
- CISA Vulnrichment (ADP): SSVC decision points
- FIRST EPSS: exploit probability and percentile
- Exploit-DB: published exploits
- Nuclei templates: detection templates
- PoC-in-GitHub: GitHub repositories that claim a proof of concept
Summary, impact and triage tags: written by our AI analysis pipeline from the sources above. Check them against the sources.
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