WordPressCMS
CVE-2020-28038
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 · uneditedWordPress before 5.5.2 allows stored XSS via post slugs.
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 confidenceWordPress before 5.5.2 contains a stored XSS vulnerability in the post slug functionality. Post slugs (URL-friendly identifiers) were not properly sanitized, allowing attackers to inject malicious JavaScript that executes when users view the affected post.
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
WordPressCMS
< 5.5.2
FedoraOperating system
= 31= 32= 33
Debian LinuxOperating system
= 9.0= 10.0CVSS 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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Verify WordPress versionCheck the installed WordPress version in the admin dashboard (Dashboard > Updates) or in the wp-includes/version.php fileAffected if The version is lower than 5.5.2
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Identify posts with custom slugsReview posts in the database or admin interface that have manually edited slugs (found in the Post > Edit screen under the Permalink field in the Document panel)Affected if The site contains posts where the slug field has been manually modified from the default auto-generated value
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Inspect slug content for XSS payloadsExamine post slugs for presence of script tags, event handlers (onclick, onerror, etc.), or other JavaScript syntax that could indicate malicious injectionAffected if Any post slug contains HTML or JavaScript characters such as <, >, script, or on* event attributes
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Check if post slugs are publicly accessibleConfirm that posts are published and their slugs are exposed in URLs on the site (vulnerability triggers when users view the post URL)Affected if The affected posts are published and accessible to users who would trigger the malicious slug execution
The environment is affected if WordPress version is below 5.5.2 AND any published post contains unsanitized characters in its slug field that could execute JavaScript in a user's browser.
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 data5.5.2
Upgrade WordPress to version 5.5.2 or later, which includes proper sanitization of post slugs. Validate that existing posts do not contain malicious slug content.
Fix this in WordPress
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,432.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2020-28038 — 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-2020-28038 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