CVE-2026-1754
Reflected XSS in WordPress personal-authors-category Plugin
Publication date: 2026-02-14
Last updated on: 2026-02-14
Assigner: Wordfence
Description
Description
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
| Probability: | |
| Percentile: |
Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| alexey_knyazev | personal_authors_category | to 0.3 (inc) |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-79 | The product does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users. |
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?
The personal-authors-category plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) via the URL path in all versions up to and including 0.3. This vulnerability arises due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping, which allows unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts into pages.
If an attacker successfully tricks a user into clicking on a specially crafted link, the injected scripts can execute in the context of the victim's browser.
How can this vulnerability impact me? :
This vulnerability can impact you by allowing attackers to execute malicious scripts in your browser without your knowledge. Such scripts can steal sensitive information like cookies, session tokens, or other private data.
Because the vulnerability is reflected XSS, it requires user interaction, such as clicking on a malicious link.
The CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.1 indicates a medium severity, with the potential for partial confidentiality and integrity impact but no impact on availability.
How does this vulnerability affect compliance with common standards and regulations (like GDPR, HIPAA)?:
I don't know
How can this vulnerability be detected on my network or system? Can you suggest some commands?
This vulnerability is a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) in the personal-authors-category WordPress plugin, exploitable via crafted URL paths. Detection involves identifying attempts to inject malicious scripts through URL parameters or paths.
You can monitor web server logs for suspicious URL patterns containing script tags or typical XSS payloads such as <script>, javascript:, or encoded variants.
Example commands to detect potential exploitation attempts include:
- Using grep on Apache or Nginx access logs to find suspicious requests: grep -iE "<script|javascript:|%3Cscript" /var/log/apache2/access.log
- Using curl to test the plugin endpoint with a crafted URL payload to see if the script is reflected in the response: curl -i "http://yourwordpresssite.com/personal-authors-category/<script>alert(1)</script>"
- Employing web vulnerability scanners or plugins that detect reflected XSS vulnerabilities on WordPress sites.
What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?
To mitigate this vulnerability, immediately update or remove the personal-authors-category plugin if an updated, patched version is not available.
Since the vulnerability arises from insufficient input sanitization and output escaping, applying strict input validation and output encoding on URL parameters related to the plugin is critical.
Additional immediate steps include:
- Restrict access to the plugin's functionality by limiting user permissions and disabling the plugin for unauthenticated users if possible.
- Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to block common XSS attack patterns targeting the plugin.
- Educate users to avoid clicking on suspicious links that could exploit this reflected XSS vulnerability.