Page BuilderWordPress extension · Wpbakery
CVE-2024-1840
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 · uneditedThe wpbakery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the Post Author tag attribute in all versions up to, and including, 7.5 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor access or higher, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
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 WPBakery page builder plugin for WordPress contains a stored XSS vulnerability in the Post Author tag attribute handling. Due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping, authenticated users with contributor-level access or higher can inject arbitrary JavaScript through the Post Author tag, which executes when other users view the affected pages.
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
Page BuilderWordPress extension
< 7.6CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 WPBakery Page Builder is installedIn WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and confirm 'WPBakery Page Builder' (or 'Visual Composer') appears in the list and is activatedAffected if The plugin is installed and active
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Check installed plugin versionIn the plugins list, click on the WPBakery plugin to view its details, or check the version in the plugin's main PHP file header under 'Version:'Affected if The version number is less than 7.6 (e.g., 7.5, 7.4, etc.)
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Identify if Post Author tag is in useEdit a page or post using the WPBakery editor, look for the 'Post Author' element in the content elements, or search post content in the database for shortcodes or elements containing 'post_author'Affected if The Post Author element or tag has been added to any published content
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Audit user roles for contributor accessGo to Users > All Users in WordPress admin and review the role column; check for any users with Contributor, Author, Editor, or Administrator rolesAffected if At least one user account with Contributor-level access or higher exists on the site
If WPBakery Page Builder version is below 7.6 AND the Post Author element is used on any published page or post, the site is affected by this stored XSS vulnerability.
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.
dbcve · scoped7.6
Update the WPBakery plugin to the latest version which includes proper sanitization and output escaping for the Post Author tag attribute. If no update is available, implement custom input validation using WordPress sanitization functions (such as wp_kses or sanitize_text_field) before rendering user-supplied content.
WPBakery Page Builder version 7.6
- Backup your WordPress site before making any changes
- Navigate to WordPress admin dashboard > Plugins
- Locate WPBakery Page Builder plugin
- Click Update Now or check for updates and update to version 7.6 or later
- Verify the plugin version shows 7.6 or higher after update
- Test that saved pages with Post Author tags render correctly
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Page Builder
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 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 $3,088.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-1840 — 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-2024-1840 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