XSS in Buildwps Ppwp – Password Protect Pages

CVE-2026-116520

The PPWP – Password Protect Pages plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'comment / shortcode attribute desc_below_form (and placeholder as the marker-smuggling helper)' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 1.9.26 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 is exploitable by unauthenticated attackers because WordPress's comment_content filter leaves bare shortcode text (containing no HTML tags) untouched, and the comment_whitelist setting auto-approves subsequent comments from a previously approved name and email without administrator intervention.

Vulnerability class: XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

Published .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.2 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.004 (32.4th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 32nd percentile — 32.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

The 30-day trend appears once there are two daily scores.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-116520?
CVE-2026-116520 is a high-severity vulnerability in Buildwps Ppwp – Password Protect Pages, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 7.2/10. Published 2026-10-31.
How severe is CVE-2026-116520?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.2 out of 10.