CVE-2026-116522
Relevanssi <= 4.28.5 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Comment Content via Late Entity Decode
Description
The Relevanssi – A Better Search plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'comment' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 4.28.5 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. This requires the site to have both the comment indexing and comment highlighting options enabled, and the payload only fires when a visitor reaches a singular page via a Relevanssi search-result permalink carrying the highlight query parameter.
INFO
Published Date :
Oct. 31, 2026, 7:16 a.m.
Last Modified :
Oct. 31, 2026, 7:16 a.m.
Remotely Exploit :
Yes !
Source :
[email protected]
CVSS Scores
| Score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability Score | Impact Score | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 3.1 | HIGH | MITRE-CVE | ||||
| CVSS 3.1 | HIGH | [email protected] |
Solution
- Update the Relevanssi plugin to the latest version.
- Review and strengthen input sanitization routines.
- Ensure proper output escaping for all user inputs.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth
information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to
CVE-2026-116522.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies
specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or
weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-116522 is
associated with the following CWEs:
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification
(CAPEC)
stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and
approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2026-116522
weaknesses.
We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).
Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.
The following list is the news that have been mention
CVE-2026-116522 vulnerability anywhere in the article.
The following table lists the changes that have been made to the
CVE-2026-116522 vulnerability over time.
Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.
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New CVE Received by [email protected]
Oct. 31, 2026
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Description The Relevanssi – A Better Search plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'comment' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 4.28.5 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. This requires the site to have both the comment indexing and comment highlighting options enabled, and the payload only fires when a visitor reaches a singular page via a Relevanssi search-result permalink carrying the highlight query parameter. Added CVSS V3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Added CWE CWE-79 Added Affected New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/116xxx/CVE-2026-116522.json">CVE-2026-116522</a> Added Reference https://github.com/msaari/relevanssi/commit/b0324957b27e2dfc2aa116c96dcf578fbec9e0e5 Added Reference https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.28.5/lib/common.php#L1037 Added Reference https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.28.5/lib/excerpts-highlights.php#L1698 Added Reference https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.28.5/lib/excerpts-highlights.php#L521 Added Reference https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.28.5/lib/excerpts-highlights.php#L688 Added Reference https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.28.5/lib/init.php#L140 Added Reference https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&new=3767703%40relevanssi%2Ftags%2F4.28.6&old=3761637%40relevanssi%2Ftags%2F4.28.5 Added Reference https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/442403ae-9011-4373-a363-e98e07ec7e9b?source=cve