What is CVE-2020-36172?

CVE-2020-36172 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Advancedcustomfields Advanced Custom Fields, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 6.1/10. Published 2021-01-06.

How severe is CVE-2020-36172?

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

Is CVE-2020-36172 known to be exploited?

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

XSS in Advancedcustomfields Advanced Custom Fields

CVE-2020-36172

The Advanced Custom Fields plugin before 5.8.12 for WordPress mishandles the escaping of strings in Select2 dropdowns, potentially leading to XSS.

Vulnerability class: XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

Published 2021-01-06 · 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: 0.009 (58.0th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 58th percentile — 58.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.009 · newest: 0.009 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Advancedcustomfields Advanced Custom Fields

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-79 — Cross-site Scripting

Public proof-of-concept exploits

20142995/nuclei-templates

References

wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-custom-fields/ (Product, Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-36172?: CVE-2020-36172 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Advancedcustomfields Advanced Custom Fields, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 6.1/10. Published 2021-01-06.
How severe is CVE-2020-36172?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.1 out of 10.
Is CVE-2020-36172 known to be exploited?: 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.