Security Resilience

CVE-2023-2298

XSS in Vcita Online Booking \& Scheduling Calendar ≤ 4.2.10

XSS
Published
03 June 2023
Modified
08 April 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.2
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0060 48th percentile
Risk Priority 61 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-2298 is a high-severity Cross-site Scripting (CWE-79) vulnerability in Vcita Online Booking \& Scheduling Calendar. Its CVSS base score is 7.2 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Protocol or Service Impersonation (T1001.003); ranked at the 48th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

The Online Booking & Scheduling Calendar for WordPress by vcita plugin is affected by a stored cross-site scripting vulnerability (CWE-79) in versions up to and including 4.3.0. The flaw resides in insufficient input sanitization and output escaping of the business_id parameter, allowing malicious payloads to be persisted and later rendered in plugin-generated pages.

Unauthenticated attackers can supply crafted input over the network to inject arbitrary scripts. Because the attack requires no credentials or user interaction and affects the scope of the vulnerable site, successful exploitation can result in limited confidentiality and integrity impacts when any visitor loads an injected page.

Public references point to a fix committed in the plugin's vcita-api-functions.php file, and Wordfence advisory data confirm that updating to a patched release addresses the input-handling weakness. Site administrators should apply the latest plugin version and verify that business_id values are properly escaped on output.

EPSS scores for the CVE rose from a low baseline to a recorded peak of 0.0646 before receding to the current value of 0.0391, indicating a measurable increase in exploitation interest after disclosure.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A05:2025 Injection

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

The Online Booking & Scheduling Calendar for WordPress by vcita plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'business_id' parameter in versions up to, and including, 4.3.0 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes…

more

it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

CWE(s)
CWE-79

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1001.003 Protocol or Service Impersonation Command And Control
Adversaries may impersonate legitimate protocols or web service traffic to disguise command and control activity and thwart analysis efforts.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.004 LSA Secrets Credential Access
Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.
attack.mitre.org →
T1003.005 Cached Domain Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may attempt to access cached domain credentials used to allow authentication to occur in the event a domain controller is unavailable.
attack.mitre.org →
T1007 System Service Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may try to gather information about registered local system services.
attack.mitre.org →
T1011 Exfiltration Over Other Network Medium Exfiltration
Adversaries may attempt to exfiltrate data over a different network medium than the command and control channel.
attack.mitre.org →
T1012 Query Registry Discovery
Adversaries may interact with the Windows Registry to gather information about the system, configuration, and installed software.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2023-39992Same product: Vcita Online Booking \& Scheduling Calendar
CVE-2023-2302Same vendor: Vcita
CVE-2023-2406Same vendor: Vcita
CVE-2023-2404Same vendor: Vcita
CVE-2023-2300Same vendor: Vcita
CVE-2023-43359Shared CWE-79
CVE-2023-2587Shared CWE-79
CVE-2023-27499Shared CWE-79
CVE-2023-37986Shared CWE-79
CVE-2023-46058Shared CWE-79

Affected Assets

vcita
online booking \& scheduling calendar
≤ 4.2.10

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.1.2
  • V1.3.2

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.

CA-8 Penetration Testing
addresses: CWE-79

Penetration testing submits XSS payloads to web applications, detecting cross-site scripting flaws for subsequent remediation.

SI-10 Information Input Validation
addresses: CWE-79

Validates web inputs to reject script-related content that could produce XSS.

SI-15 Information Output Filtering
addresses: CWE-79

Output validation against expected content can reject or sanitize script content in generated web pages, reducing XSS exploitability.

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.PS-06 mostly match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly target introduction of XSS via coding standards/testing (mostly), yet the single broad outcome leaves many specific neutralization vectors unaddressed (partial).

PR.PS-02 partial match
blocks

Patching and EOL replacement can remediate known XSS instances in libraries or frameworks (partial) but do nothing to enforce input neutralization in application code (none).

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.

A.5.14 Information transfer partial match
removes
A.5.15 Access control partial match
removes
A.5.16 Identity management partial match
removes
A.5.17 Authentication information partial match
removes
A.5.18 Access rights partial match
removes
A.5.6 Contact with special interest groups partial match
blocks

A.5.6 only promotes membership in groups to improve knowledge, receive alerts, and share information; it performs no action that stops XSS exploitation (or even the underlying neutralization defect) and is a pure dependency for other controls per the owner's labeling rule.

References