What is CVE-2019-20042?

CVE-2019-20042 is a medium-severity vulnerability in WordPress, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 6.1/10. Published 2019-12-27.

How severe is CVE-2019-20042?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.1 out of 10.

Is CVE-2019-20042 known to be exploited?

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

XSS in WordPress

CVE-2019-20042

In wp-includes/formatting.php in WordPress 3.7 to 5.3.0, the function wp_targeted_link_rel() can be used in a particular way to result in a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability. This has been patched in WordPress 5.3.1, along with all the previous WordPress versions from 3.7 to 5.3 via a minor release.

Vulnerability class: XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

Published 2019-12-27 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.1 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.028 (85.7th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 86th percentile — 85.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.028 · newest: 0.028 · change: 0.000

Affected products

WordPress
Debian Linux — versions 9.0, 10.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-79 — Cross-site Scripting

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/9975 (Third Party Advisory, Release Notes)
wordpress.org/news/2019/12/wordpress-5-3-1-security-and-maintenance-release/ (Release Notes, Vendor Advisory)
core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/46894/trunk (Patch)
github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/commit/1f7f3f1f59567e2504f0fbebd51ccf004… (Patch)
blog.ripstech.com/filter/vulnerabilities/ (Not Applicable)
seclists.org/bugtraq/2020/Jan/8 (mailing-list, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4599 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/security/advisories/GHSA-xvg2-m2f4-83m7 (Third Party Advisory)
hackerone.com/reports/509930 (Third Party Advisory)
www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4677 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2019-20042?: CVE-2019-20042 is a medium-severity vulnerability in WordPress, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 6.1/10. Published 2019-12-27.
How severe is CVE-2019-20042?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.1 out of 10.
Is CVE-2019-20042 known to be exploited?: 7 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.