Comment Rating Stars Security & Risk Analysis

wordpress.org/plugins/comment-rating-stars

A simple plugin for adding review and rating functionality to WordPress comments.

100 active installs v1.0.0-RC1 PHP + WP 3.6+ Updated Oct 1, 2013
commentsreviews
85
A · Safe
CVEs total0
Unpatched0
Last CVENever
Safety Verdict

Is Comment Rating Stars Safe to Use in 2026?

Generally Safe

Score 85/100

Comment Rating Stars has no known CVEs and is actively maintained. It's a solid choice for most WordPress installations.

No known CVEs Updated 12yr ago
Risk Assessment

The 'comment-rating-stars' plugin version 1.0.0-RC1 exhibits a generally strong security posture based on the provided static analysis. The absence of known CVEs and a clean vulnerability history are positive indicators, suggesting a focus on secure development practices. The plugin boasts a zero-attack surface with no unprotected entry points like AJAX handlers, REST API routes, or shortcodes, which significantly reduces the potential for external exploitation.

However, the static analysis does reveal some areas for improvement. While there are no dangerous functions or external HTTP requests, the output escaping is only 33% properly escaped, indicating a potential risk of Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities if user-supplied data is not adequately sanitized before being displayed. The taint analysis, though limited in scope, flagged one flow with an unsanitized path, which warrants further investigation to confirm the absence of a critical or high-severity vulnerability.

In conclusion, the plugin has a good foundation with its minimal attack surface and lack of historical vulnerabilities. The primary concern lies in the incomplete output escaping and the single unsanitized taint flow, which, if exploited, could lead to XSS or other injection-related issues. Addressing these specific code signals and taint findings would further solidify the plugin's security.

Key Concerns

  • Output escaping not fully implemented
  • Taint flow with unsanitized path
Vulnerabilities
None known

Comment Rating Stars Security Vulnerabilities

No known vulnerabilities — this is a good sign.
Version History

Comment Rating Stars Release Timeline

No version history available.
Code Analysis
Analyzed Mar 16, 2026

Comment Rating Stars Code Analysis

Dangerous Functions
0
Raw SQL Queries
0
0 prepared
Unescaped Output
2
1 escaped
Nonce Checks
0
Capability Checks
0
File Operations
0
External Requests
0
Bundled Libraries
0

Output Escaping

33% escaped3 total outputs
Data Flows · Security
1 unsanitized

Data Flow Analysis

1 flows1 with unsanitized paths
<comment-star-reviews> (comment-star-reviews.php:0)
Source (user input) Sink (dangerous op) Sanitizer Transform Unsanitized Sanitized
Attack Surface

Comment Rating Stars Attack Surface

Entry Points0
Unprotected0
WordPress Hooks 4
actioninitcomment-star-reviews.php:35
actioninitcomment-star-reviews.php:36
actioncomment_postcomment-star-reviews.php:37
filtercomment_textcomment-star-reviews.php:52
Maintenance & Trust

Comment Rating Stars Maintenance & Trust

Maintenance Signals

WordPress version tested3.6.1
Last updatedOct 1, 2013
PHP min version
Downloads5K

Community Trust

Rating94/100
Number of ratings6
Active installs100
Developer Profile

Comment Rating Stars Developer Profile

jgadbois

2 plugins · 110 total installs

84
trust score
Avg Security Score
85/100
Avg Patch Time
30 days
View full developer profile
Detection Fingerprints

How We Detect Comment Rating Stars

Patterns used to identify this plugin on WordPress sites during automated security audits and web crawling.

Asset Fingerprints

Asset Paths
/wp-content/plugins/comment-rating-stars/resources/frontend/jquery.rateit.min.js/wp-content/plugins/comment-rating-stars/resources/frontend/comment-review-stars.js/wp-content/plugins/comment-rating-stars/resources/frontend/rateit.css
Script Paths
resources/frontend/jquery.rateit.min.jsresources/frontend/comment-review-stars.js
Version Parameters
jquery.rateit.min.js?ver=comment-review-stars.js?ver=rateit.css?ver=

HTML / DOM Fingerprints

CSS Classes
rateitrating-fieldreview-rating-label
Data Attributes
data-rateit-backingflddata-rateit-valuedata-rateit-ispresetdata-rateit-readonly
Shortcode Output
<div class='rateit' data-rateit-backingfld='.rating-field'></div> <input type='hidden' name='rating' class='rating-field'/><div class='rateit'data-rateit-value="<label class='review-rating-label'>Rating</label>
FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about Comment Rating Stars