CVE-2019-9978: WordPress Social Warfare Plugin Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Vulnerability

Is it exploited?

Yes. CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 3 Nov 2021, 955 days after the CVE record was published.

How likely is exploitation in the next 30 days?

72.9%

EPSS score, percentile 99.5 of all scored records

How severe?

6.1 Medium

CVSS v3.1 base score, from CISA's enrichment of the record

What should I do?

CISA deadline 3 May 2022. Apply updates per vendor instructions.

The CVE record links no vendor advisory, patch or mitigation.

Which versions are affected?

Not stated. The CVE record gives vendor and product as “n/a” and the version as “unspecified”.

Source: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, 2026.10.28, as of 28 Oct 2026; FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), v2026.06.15, as of 28 Oct 2026; CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of 28 Oct 2026. About the data.

What to do

CISA due date for this action: 3 May 2022.

Advisories and patches

The CVE record links no vendor advisory, patch or mitigation.

Linked from CISA's catalog entry

• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-9978

Affected products and versions

The CVE record does not name affected products or versions: vendor and product are “n/a” and the version is “unspecified”.

Source: CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of 28 Oct 2026. About the data.

About this vulnerability

WordPress Social Warfare plugin contains a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability that allows for remote code execution. This vulnerability affects Social Warfare and Social Warfare Pro.

Summary: CISA's KEV catalog, as of 28 Oct 2026.

• CISA added CVE-2019-9978 to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog on 3 Nov 2021.
• CISA's ransomware flag for this entry is "Unknown": no evidence of ransomware use in the catalog, which is not proof of none.
• The due date CISA sets for the required action is 3 May 2022.
• The CVE record was published on 24 Mar 2019, 955 days before it was added to KEV.
• The CVE record carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.1 (Medium), taken from CISA's enrichment of the record.
• FIRST's EPSS model puts the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days at 72.9% (percentile 99.5), as of 28 Oct 2026.
• CISA's SSVC assessment in the CVE record: exploitation active, automatable no, technical impact partial.

Source: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, 2026.10.28, as of 28 Oct 2026; CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of 28 Oct 2026; FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), v2026.06.15, as of 28 Oct 2026. About the data.

Description

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.

Source: CVE List V5 (CVE Program), cve_2026-10-28_0000Z, as of 28 Oct 2026. About the data.

Weakness

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

CWE and CAPEC are maintained by MITRE; the entries are those named in the CVE record and the KEV entry.

Timeline

References

• 46794 (Exploit)
• wpvulndb.com
• cybersecurity-help.cz
• blog.sucuri.net
• wordfence.com
• pluginvulnerabilities.com
• wordpress.org
• twitter.com
• packetstormsecurity.com
• packetstormsecurity.com

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