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

CVE-2026-2352

MEDIUM · 6.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-03-21
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
70/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Zero-click Patch available

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 Autoptimize plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'ao_post_preload' meta value in all versions up to, and including, 3.1.14. This is due to insufficient input sanitization in the `ao_metabox_save()` function and missing output escaping when the value is rendered into a `<link>` tag in `autoptimizeImages.php`. 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, granted the "Image optimization" or "Lazy-load images" setting is enabled in the plugin configuration.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-79

Untrusted input is placed into a web page without being neutralised, so an attacker's markup or script executes in another user's browser. That can hijack sessions, capture keystrokes, or silently perform actions as the victim. Fixing it properly means context-aware output encoding everywhere data meets HTML, backed by a content-security policy as a second line of defence.

General guidance for the cross-site scripting (xss) class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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

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 · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

3.1.15

  1. 1. Back up your WordPress site database and files.
  2. 2. Navigate to your WordPress admin dashboard.
  3. 3. Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins.
  4. 4. Find the Autoptimize plugin in the list.
  5. 5. Click 'Update now' if an update is available, or manually upload version 3.1.15 of the Autoptimize plugin.
  6. 6. Verify the update completed successfully.
  7. 7. Confirm the 'Image optimization' and 'Lazy-load images' settings are functioning correctly after the update.

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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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-2026-2352 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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