CVE-2023-40680 | WordPress Yoast SEO Plugin <= 21.0 is vulnerable to Cross Site Scripting (XSS)

Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in Team Yoast Yoast SEO allows Stored XSS.This issue affects Yoast SEO: from n/a through 21.0.

Published: 2023-11-30 Last update: 2026-04-28 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-40680 is rated Low Risk (35.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.43%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-40680

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.25% 0.43% +0.17%
2 2026-05-06 0.16% 0.25% +0.09%
3 2026-03-04 — 0.16% —

Full EPSS history (22 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-40680

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.7 3.7 [email protected]
4.8 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.7 2.7 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-40680

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-40680

GHSA-h5fw-7h4g-p3xc · Severity: medium — Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')...

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-40680

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
yoast yoast_seo <= 21.0 cpe:2.3:a:yoast:yoast_seo:*:*:*:*:*:wordpress:*:*

References for CVE-2023-40680

cvelogic Threat Intelligence