XSS in Litespeedtech Litespeed Cache

CVE-2026-18978

The LiteSpeed Cache plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Comment Content in all versions up to, and including, 7.8.1 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. A comment payload crafted exclusively from decimal numeric character references (e.g. ", <, >) placed inside an allowed element such as <code> bypasses WordPress's wp_kses sanitization, as kses does not treat a data-settings="..." substring within text content as an HTML attribute, allowing the malicious payload to reach the vulnerable function. For this to be exploitable, the site must allow users with previously approved comments to write new comments, and the require_name_email setting must be disabled.

Vulnerability class: XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)

Published · last modified .

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 (28.7th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 29th percentile — 28.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-18978: held from 0.003 to 0.004.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.004 · change: +0.001

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-18978?
CVE-2026-18978 is a high-severity vulnerability in Litespeedtech Litespeed Cache, classified under Cross-site Scripting. CVSS score: 7.2/10. Published 2026-08-28.
How severe is CVE-2026-18978?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.2 out of 10.