Cyber Resilience

CVE-2023-1889

Access Control in Wpwax Directorist ≤ 7.5.4

Published
09 June 2023
Modified
08 April 2026
CVSS Score v3.1 6.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0061 46th percentile
Risk Priority 51 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2023-1889 is a medium-severity Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key (CWE-639) vulnerability in Wpwax Directorist. Its CVSS base score is 6.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 46th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

The Directorist plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to an Insecure Direct Object Reference in versions up to, and including, 7.5.4. This is due to improper validation and authorization checks within the listing_task function. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers,…

more

with subscriber-level permissions and above, to delete arbitrary posts. Please note CVE-2023-35052 appears to be a duplicate of this issue.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-2252Same product: Wpwax Directorist
CVE-2024-1322Same product: Wpwax Directorist
CVE-2023-1888Same product: Wpwax Directorist
CVE-2023-41798Same product: Wpwax Directorist
CVE-2025-1570Same product: Wpwax Directorist
CVE-2024-12041Same product: Wpwax Directorist
CVE-2024-13409Same vendor: Wpwax
CVE-2023-47824Same vendor: Wpwax
CVE-2025-24782Same vendor: Wpwax
CVE-2025-3874Shared CWE-639

Affected Assets

wpwax
directorist
≤ 7.5.4

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-639

Per-request decision making makes it harder to bypass authorization using user-controlled keys without proper validation in the decision process.

addresses: CWE-639

Consistent enforcement of approved authorizations makes bypassing via user-controlled keys ineffective.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.AA-05 full match
prevents

Enforcing authorization policy and least privilege directly blocks user-controlled key tampering that bypasses access checks.

PR.IR-01 mostly match
prevents

Logical access controls prevent unauthorized data access that results from missing authorization checks on object references.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing can detect missing authorization checks but does not prevent the weakness in production.

prevents

Information access restriction explicitly enforces that users may only retrieve data they are authorized to see, directly addressing user-controlled key bypass.

prevents

Access control policy directly requires enforcement of authorization rules that prevent unauthorized access via manipulated keys.

prevents

Managing access rights includes ensuring users can only access their own records and not bypass authorization by altering identifiers.

mitigates

Privileged access rights control restricts what data each user may access, mitigating direct object reference attacks.

prevents

Secure development lifecycle includes authorization design but does not itself implement runtime access checks.

References