CVE-2026-1397
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 PQ Addons – Creative Elementor Widgets plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via widget attributes in all versions up to, and including, 1.0.0 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on the html_tag parameter in the PQ Section Title widget. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor-level access and above, 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 PQ Addons WordPress plugin's PQ Section Title widget fails to sanitize the html_tag parameter during input and escape it during output, allowing authenticated users with contributor-level permissions to inject persistent malicious JavaScript that executes whenever pages containing the widget are accessed.
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check if PQ Addons plugin is installedIn WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and look for 'PQ Addons' or check the plugin directory wp-content/plugins for a pq-addons folderAffected if PQ Addons plugin is not installed or not present on the system
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Identify the installed version of PQ Addons pluginIn WordPress admin, view the plugin details from Plugins > Installed Plugins to see the version number, or read the main plugin file header in wp-content/plugins/pq-addons/Affected if The installed version has not received the fix for html_tag sanitization and escaping
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Determine if PQ Section Title widget is in useCheck WordPress widget areas under Appearance > Widgets for the 'PQ Section Title' widget, or query the wp_postmeta table for meta_key containing 'widget_pq_section_title' or 'pq_section_title'Affected if The PQ Section Title widget is added to any sidebar, footer, or page builder area
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Verify contributor-level user accounts existReview user roles under Users > All Users and note any accounts with 'Contributor' roleAffected if At least one user account has contributor-level permissions and could potentially exploit this vulnerability if the widget is in use
The environment is affected if the PQ Addons plugin is installed with a vulnerable version and the PQ Section Title widget is actively used on the site, allowing authenticated contributors to inject JavaScript via the unsanitized html_tag parameter.
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 dataUpdate the plugin to a version that properly sanitizes the html_tag parameter using WordPress sanitization functions (such as sanitize_html_class or similar) and implements output escaping (such as esc_attr) when rendering the widget.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 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 $2,272.
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-1397 — 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-2026-1397 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