CVE-2026-8897
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 Shortcode Buddy plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Shortcode Attributes in all versions up to, and including, 0.1.9.5 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 Shortcode Buddy WordPress plugin fails to properly sanitize shortcode attributes and escape output, allowing authenticated users with contributor-level permissions or higher to inject arbitrary JavaScript through shortcode parameters. This stored XSS executes whenever a user views a page containing the malicious shortcode.
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 Shortcode Buddy plugin is installedIn WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and locate Shortcode Buddy, or check the /wp-content/plugins/ directory for the shortcode-buddy folder. Note the version number displayed.Affected if The plugin is installed and active in WordPress
-
Compare installed version to affected rangeLocate the plugin version from the previous step. Since no specific version range is provided in this CVE, compare your version against any version numbers you obtain from official WordPress plugin repository release notes or security advisories for this CVE.Affected if Your installed version falls within the vulnerable version range for this CVE
-
Identify users with contributor-level or higher accessIn WordPress admin, go to Users > All Users and review the role column. Contributor, Author, Editor, and Administrator roles all have permissions to create or edit content where shortcodes can be inserted.Affected if There are user accounts with Contributor, Author, Editor, or Administrator roles who can create or edit posts/pages containing shortcodes
-
Inspect shortcodes for unescaped outputView the source of pages containing Shortcode Buddy shortcodes (Pages > All Pages > edit a page, then view the published page in browser and check View > Page Source). Look for shortcode attributes appearing as raw HTML or JavaScript in the output rather than being HTML-encoded.Affected if Shortcode attribute values render as raw HTML/JavaScript in page output instead of being escaped (e.g., you see <script> tags or unencoded quotes in the HTML source)
You are affected if Shortcode Buddy is installed, your version is within the vulnerable range, and users with contributor+ permissions exist who could inject malicious shortcode content that renders unescaped in page output.
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 the latest version of Shortcode Buddy when available; until then, restrict shortcode creation privileges to trusted administrators only and audit existing shortcodes for suspicious content.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,848.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-8897 — 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-2026-8897 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