What is CVE-2016-10953?

CVE-2016-10953 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Headwaythemes Headway, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 5.4/10. Published 2019-09-13.

How severe is CVE-2016-10953?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.4 out of 10.

Is CVE-2016-10953 known to be exploited?

2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

XSS in Headwaythemes Headway

CVE-2016-10953

The Headway theme before 3.8.9 for WordPress has XSS via the license key field.

Vulnerability class: XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

Published 2019-09-13 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.4 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.008 (53.3th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 53rd percentile — 53.3% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.008 · newest: 0.008 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Headwaythemes Headway

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-79 — Cross-site Scripting

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/8641 (Third Party Advisory)
wptavern.com/headway-3-8-9-patches-potential-xss-vulnerability (Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2016-10953?: CVE-2016-10953 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Headwaythemes Headway, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 5.4/10. Published 2019-09-13.
How severe is CVE-2016-10953?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.4 out of 10.
Is CVE-2016-10953 known to be exploited?: 2 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.