CVE-2026-2509
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 Page Builder: Pagelayer plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the Button widget's Custom Attributes field in all versions up to, and including, 2.0.8. This is due to an incomplete event handler blocklist in the 'pagelayer_xss_content' XSS filtering function, which blocks common, but not all, event handlers. 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 Pagelayer WordPress plugin's 'pagelayer_xss_content' XSS filter uses an incomplete event handler blocklist, allowing authenticated attackers with Contributor-level access to inject malicious JavaScript via the Button widget's Custom Attributes field. The injected scripts execute persistently whenever users access compromised pages.
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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Verify Pagelayer plugin installation and versionIn WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and locate Pagelayer, or check the version in the plugin header file /wp-content/plugins/pagelayer/pagelayer.phpAffected if Pagelayer plugin is installed and version is lower than 2.0.9
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Confirm Button widget with Custom Attributes is in useQuery the WordPress database for postmeta entries containing 'pagelayer' and 'custom_attrs', or review pages edited with the Pagelayer editor for any Button widgets that have custom attributes configuredAffected if Any published pages use the Button widget with non-empty Custom Attributes field
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Inspect Custom Attributes for malicious payloadsSearch postmeta for the 'custom_attrs' value and examine for event handlers like onload, onerror, onmouseover, onfocus, onblur, or other JavaScript injection patternsAffected if Custom Attributes contain unsanitized event handler strings such as javascript: or event handlers like onload=, onerror=, onmouseover=
User is affected if Pagelayer plugin version is below 2.0.9 and any published page uses the Button widget with Custom Attributes that could contain injected XSS payloads.
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 to version 2.0.9 or later where the event handler blocklist has been completed, or implement additional output encoding on the Custom Attributes field.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 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 $2,800.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-2509 — 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-2026-2509 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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- 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