CVE-2026-4852
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 Image Source Control Lite – Show Image Credits and Captions plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'Image Source' attachment field in all versions up to, and including, 3.9.1 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.
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 Image Source Control Lite WordPress plugin fails to properly sanitize and escape the 'Image Source' attachment field, allowing authenticated users with Author-level permissions or higher to inject malicious JavaScript that executes when other users view affected 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.
-
Verify plugin is installedGo to WordPress admin > Plugins and confirm 'Image Source Control Lite' is active. Note the installed version number displayed.Affected if Plugin is installed and version is 3.9.1 or lower (versions beyond 3.9.1 contain the fix)
-
Check plugin version directlyAccess the plugin file via FTP or file manager: look in /wp-content/plugins/image-source-control-lite/ for the main plugin PHP file and inspect the version header comment.Affected if Version returned is 3.9.1 or lower
-
Identify if Image Source fields contain dataQuery the WordPress database: SELECT * FROM wp_postmeta WHERE meta_key = '_image_source' AND meta_value != ''; (adjust prefix if wp_ is different). Check if any rows exist with non-empty Image Source values.Affected if Any attachment has a non-empty Image Source field that could contain unsanitized input
-
Inspect page output for unsanitized outputView any page containing an image attachment in the browser. Right-click > View Source and search for the Image Source text. Verify it is wrapped in esc_html or esc_attr functions in the plugin output code.Affected if The Image Source value appears raw in HTML without proper escaping (visible <script> tags or unencoded characters)
User is affected if Image Source Control Lite plugin version is 3.9.1 or lower AND the site has any attachments with Image Source data entered by users with Author-level or higher permissions.
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 beyond 3.9.1 that includes proper input sanitization (e.g., sanitize_text_field) and output escaping (e.g., esc_html, esc_attr) for the Image Source field.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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 $1,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-4852 — 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-2026-4852 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
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
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