CVE-2026-8040
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 faq shortocde plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'color' shortcode attribute in the 'faq' shortcode in all versions up to, and including, 1.0 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. 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 'faq shortcode' WordPress plugin fails to sanitize the 'color' attribute input and escape it during output, allowing authenticated users with Contributor-level access or higher to inject malicious JavaScript through the shortcode. This stored XSS executes whenever the affected page is 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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Verify plugin installation and versionIn WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and locate the 'faq shortcode' plugin. Note the installed version number. If the plugin is not listed, you are not affected.Affected if The plugin is installed and you cannot confirm it has been patched for this vulnerability
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Identify shortcode usage with color attributeSearch your WordPress database or content for occurrences of the shortcode [faq color=] or similar patterns. You can use phpMyAdmin to query the wp_posts table for posts containing 'faq' and 'color' attributes, or use a plugin search tool.Affected if Any post or page uses the faq shortcode with a color attribute value that could contain unsanitized input
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Review user access levelsIn WordPress admin, go to Users > All Users and review the roles assigned. Specifically check if any users have Contributor, Author, Editor, or Administrator roles, as these roles can use the shortcode.Affected if There are users with Contributor-level or higher access who could potentially inject malicious code through the shortcode
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Inspect shortcode output in page sourceVisit a page using the faq shortcode with a color attribute, then view the page source (right-click > View Page Source). Look for the color attribute value in the rendered HTML and check if it appears unescaped (e.g., without proper HTML entity encoding).Affected if The color attribute value is rendered without proper escaping (e.g., quotes are not encoded as " or the value appears as raw JavaScript)
You are affected if the 'faq shortcode' plugin is installed, contains the vulnerability (unpatched version), and the color attribute is being used in any content, combined with users who have Contributor-level or higher WordPress access.
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 patched version once available; otherwise remove or disable the plugin. The fix requires adding proper input sanitization (e.g., sanitize_text_field) for the color attribute and output escaping (e.g., esc_attr) when rendering the shortcode.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-8040 — 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-2026-8040 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
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