# CVE-2021-24893: Stars Rating < 3.5.1 - Comments Denial of Service

> Attackers can cause a Denial of Service in the comments section by submitting long integer ratings in the Stars Rating WordPress plugin.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 3 Jan 2022
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-pf4x-fwwq-h7vv

## What is CVE-2021-24893?

CVE-2021-24893 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Unknown Stars Rating, published on 3 Jan 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Stars Rating WordPress plugin before 3.5.1 does not validate the submitted rating, allowing submission of long integer, causing a Denial of Service in the comments section, or pending comment dashboard depending if the user sent it as unauthenticated or authenticated.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation), CWE-400 (Uncontrolled Resource Consumption)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-24893?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Stars Rating Project Stars Rating.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-24893?

No fix has been published for CVE-2021-24893 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2021-24893 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-24893 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-24893 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-24893 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Unknown Stars Rating, published on 3 Jan 2022. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-24893 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Unknown Stars Rating. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-24893/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-24893/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24893
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24893
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-24893

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-24893/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.