Nova LiteWordPress extension · Themeinprogress
CVE-2020-17362
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedsearch.php in the Nova Lite theme before 1.3.9 for WordPress allows Reflected XSS.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe Nova Lite WordPress theme before version 1.3.9 contains a reflected XSS vulnerability in the search.php file. User-supplied input in search queries is not properly sanitized or escaped before being reflected back in the page, allowing an attacker to inject malicious JavaScript code that executes in the victim's browser.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Nova LiteWordPress extension
< 1.3.9CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm Nova Lite theme is installedNavigate to WordPress dashboard > Appearance > Themes and verify Nova Lite is active, or check the wp-content/themes directory for nova-lite folderAffected if Nova Lite theme is installed and active
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Identify installed theme versionCheck the style.css file in wp-content/themes/nova-lite/ for the 'Version:' header in the file comments, or view theme details in WordPress admin under Appearance > ThemesAffected if Version displayed is below 1.3.9
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Locate search.php fileCheck if wp-content/themes/nova-lite/search.php exists on the filesystemAffected if search.php file is present in the theme directory
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Test search functionality for XSS parameter reflectionUse the search feature on the site (typically ?s= query parameter) and inspect the page source of the results page to see if the search term is reflected without proper encoding. For example, submit a test query like <script>alert(1)</script> and check if it appears unescaped in the HTML outputAffected if User input is reflected back in the HTML without being sanitized or escaped (vulnerable behavior is present)
User is affected if Nova Lite theme version is below 1.3.9 AND the search.php file exists AND search query input is reflected unescaped in the page output
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor data1.3.9
Update the Nova Lite theme to version 1.3.9 or later. If immediate update is not possible, implement input validation and output encoding on the search.php file to sanitize user input before reflecting it in the response.
Fix this in Nova Lite
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,200.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-17362 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2020-17362 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data