Vulnerability report

Exploitation attempts observed in the wild Confirmed confidence In CISA KEV

CVE-2019-9978

Social Warfare Cross-Site Scripting

Warfare Plugins / Social Warfare

Watch CVE-2019-9978 Browse KEV feed
Severity
CVSS 6.1 · Medium
Confidence
Confirmed
Exploit status
Exploitation attempts observed in the wild
EPSS
72.9%
First observed
—
Last observed
—

Decision summary

What security teams need to know first

Direct answers before the deeper technical record.

What it is

CVE-2019-9978 is an unauthenticated vulnerability affecting Warfare Plugins Social Warfare. The social-warfare plugin before 3.5.3 for WordPress has stored XSS via the wp-admin/admin-post.php?swp_debug=load_options...

Have exploitation attempts been observed?

Yes. Exploitation attempts have been reported for this vulnerability. Previdian lists it as a known exploited vulnerability. Listed in CISA KEV. Also reported by third-party sources. Confidence is confirmed.

Who is affected?

Warfare Plugins / Social Warfare.

What should we do?

Prioritize remediation. Validate affected assets and apply vendor fixes on an accelerated timeline.

Overview

Social Warfare Cross-Site Scripting

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.

Published
24 Mar 2019
Exploitation Attempts Reported
03 Nov 2021
Attack vector
Remote
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required

Tags

nuclei_scanner wordpress cisa php

CVE References

Exploitation evidence

Evidence of exploitation attempts

Third-party attestation and first-party sensor observation are shown separately so teams can judge the evidence chain.

Exploitation attempts observed in the wild

CISA

Recorded 03 Nov 2021

A trusted third party reported exploitation attempts.

Proof of concept available

GitHub

Recorded 25 Mar 2019

Public scanner or PoC coverage increases practical exploitability.

Known exploited vulnerability sources

Per-source evidence links for KEV attestations are available through the Previdian Pro API.

Learn about Pro API access
Source Added
CISA First 2021-11-03 00:00 UTC
The Shadowserver 2026-05-29 00:00 UTC
Tenable Blog 2026-07-20 13:36 UTC

Detection

Operational artifacts and observed signals

Make the evidence actionable in scanner, SOC, and edge-control workflows.

Observed signals

Request targets
User-Agents
Callback hosts
0
0
0

Request targets and User-Agents available in Pro. Callback host details available in Enterprise.

Virtual patch status

No Previdian virtual patch is currently available. Future rules ship for ModSecurity, Cloudflare, and AWS WAF.

Learn about virtual patches →

Scanner Artifacts

Scanner and exploit-framework references linked to this CVE.

Scanner Reference Detected
Nuclei https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei-templates/blob/main/http/cves/2019/CVE-2019-9978.yaml 25 Apr 2025

Risk and context

Severity, weaknesses, and research context

CVSS v3.1

6.1 Medium

Potential damage if exploited. Separate from whether attackers are using it.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

EPSS

72.9%

Estimated chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Previdian's warning comes from evidence, not this score.

Weaknesses

Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') CWE-79

Recent mention · Tenable Blog

wp2shell (CVE-2026-63030, CVE-2026-60137): Frequently asked questions about remote code execution chain in WordPress Core

An unauthenticated attacker can chain two WordPress Core vulnerabilities, CVE-2026-63030 and CVE-2026-60137, to achieve remote code execution against affected WordPress installations. Multiple security firms have confirmed active in-the-wild exploitation within days of public...

Read full advisory

All CVSS Scores

CVSS v3.1 6.1 Medium

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

CVSS v2.0 4.3 Medium

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N

Potential Proof of Concepts

These PoCs are unverified and could contain malware. Use at your own risk.

WordPress Social Warfare <3.5.3 - Cross-Site Scripting

nuclei · Created Unknown

Timeline

From disclosure to observed exploitation attempts

  1. 13:36 UTC

    KEV confirmed by Tenable Blog

    Exploitation attempts reported by an external source

  2. 14:20 UTC

    Public PoC available

    Public proof-of-concept code published

  3. 00:00 UTC

    KEV confirmed by The Shadowserver

    Exploitation attempts reported by an external source

  4. 00:00 UTC

    Nuclei template available

    Scanner coverage available

  5. 00:00 UTC

    Added to CISA KEV

    Listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

  6. 14:47 UTC

    CVE published

    Vulnerability disclosed publicly

  7. 00:00 UTC

    CVE ID reserved

    Identifier reserved by the CNA

Pro API

Automate this intelligence

Confidence, exploit status, sensor telemetry, PoCs, scanner integrations, mentions, and tags are available programmatically for VM, SOC, and CTI workflows.

Start 14-day Pro trial Read API docs
  • Evidence confidence and provenance
  • First-party sensor telemetry
  • PoC and scanner references
  • Affected versions and enrichment
  • Automation-ready JSON delivery

GET /api/v2/pro/kevs/CVE-2019-9978

Sample API response 
{
  "cve_id": "CVE-2019-9978",
  "confidence": "Confirmed",
  "cvss_score": 6.1,
  "cvss_estimated": false,
  "epss_score": 0.72946,
  "exploit_status": {
    "exploited_in_the_wild": true,
    "active_exploitation_observed": false
  },
  "sensor_telemetry": { "attempts": 0, "sensors": 0 }
}