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Cross-site Scripting (XSS)Weakness · CWE-79

CVE-2026-10738

MEDIUM · 6.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-06-09
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
70/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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 · unedited
The jQuery Hover Footnotes plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Footnote Qualifier ('{{...}}' Syntax) in all versions up to, and including, 1.4 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with author-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. The attribute-breakout payload (e.g., a double-quote followed by an event handler) contains no angle brackets and therefore bypasses WordPress core's wp_kses_post() filtering, which only strips disallowed HTML tags rather than sanitizing attribute contexts.

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 confidence

The jQuery Hover Footnotes WordPress plugin fails to properly sanitize footnote qualifiers in the {{...}} syntax before outputting them in HTML attributes. An authenticated attacker with author-level access can inject XSS by breaking out of attribute contexts using a double-quote followed by an event handler (e.g., onmouseover), bypassing wp_kses_post() which only removes HTML tags but doesn't sanitize attribute values.

MitigationUpdate the plugin to a version that properly sanitizes output in attribute contexts, or implement context-aware escaping (esc_attr()) for footnote content rendered within HTML attributes.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS 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
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify plugin installation and version
    Check the installed version of the jQuery Hover Footnotes plugin in WordPress under Plugins > Installed Plugins, or inspect the plugin header file for the Version field
    Affected if The installed version is 1.4 or any earlier version (versions 'up to 1.4' are affected)
  2. Confirm plugin is active
    Verify the jQuery Hover Footnotes plugin is currently activated on the site
    Affected if The plugin is active and the version is 1.4 or earlier
  3. Identify users with author-level or higher permissions
    Navigate to Users > All Users in WordPress admin and review roles; check for any users with Author, Editor, or Administrator roles who have access to create or edit content
    Affected if There are untrusted or compromised author-level or higher user accounts on the site
  4. Inspect post content for footnote qualifier syntax
    Search the wp_posts table or use a plugin to examine post content for the literal string '{{' which indicates footnote qualifiers are in use
    Affected if Posts or pages contain footnote qualifiers using the '{{...}}' syntax and the plugin version is 1.4 or earlier
  5. Examine footnote content for XSS payloads
    Review the content within footnote qualifiers for patterns like {{...}} with double-quote characters followed by event handlers such as onmouseover, onfocus, or onerror (no angle brackets needed)
    Affected if Any footnote qualifiers contain double-quote breakout patterns or event handler attributes that could execute malicious scripts

The environment is affected if the jQuery Hover Footnotes plugin version 1.4 or earlier is installed and active, and untrusted author-level users can create content containing the '{{...}}' footnote qualifier syntax.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Update the plugin to a version that properly sanitizes output in attribute contexts, or implement context-aware escaping (esc_attr()) for footnote content rendered within HTML attributes.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-10738 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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