GHSA-5JV4-J9F2-3247
Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-10-16 03:30 – Updated: 2026-10-16 03:30The Popup Box plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary Shortcode Execution in versions 6.4.1 to 6.4.2. This is due to the ays_popup_get_user_ip() function reading the client-controlled Client-IP / X-Forwarded-For / Forwarded / X-Forwarded / Forwarded-For request headers, sanitizing them only with sanitize_text_field() (which does not strip the bracket, quote, space, or '=' characters used by shortcode syntax), substituting the value into a popup body wherever the %%user_ip_address%% token appears (a raw str_replace with no escaping in Ays_Pb_Data::replace_message_variables()), and then passing the resulting body to do_shortcode() in Ays_Pb_Public::ays_autoembed() at output on the wp_footer hook. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary registered shortcodes with attacker-supplied attributes on the server whenever an administrator has added the %%user_ip_address%% token to a popup's Custom Content body, which can be leveraged to read arbitrary data or perform other actions exposed by shortcodes installed on the site.
{
"affected": [],
"aliases": [
"CVE-2026-100159"
],
"database_specific": {
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-94"
],
"github_reviewed": false,
"github_reviewed_at": null,
"nvd_published_at": "2026-10-16T03:17:58Z",
"severity": "MODERATE"
},
"details": "The Popup Box plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary Shortcode Execution in versions 6.4.1 to 6.4.2. This is due to the ays_popup_get_user_ip() function reading the client-controlled Client-IP / X-Forwarded-For / Forwarded / X-Forwarded / Forwarded-For request headers, sanitizing them only with sanitize_text_field() (which does not strip the bracket, quote, space, or \u0027=\u0027 characters used by shortcode syntax), substituting the value into a popup body wherever the %%user_ip_address%% token appears (a raw str_replace with no escaping in Ays_Pb_Data::replace_message_variables()), and then passing the resulting body to do_shortcode() in Ays_Pb_Public::ays_autoembed() at output on the wp_footer hook. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary registered shortcodes with attacker-supplied attributes on the server whenever an administrator has added the %%user_ip_address%% token to a popup\u0027s Custom Content body, which can be leveraged to read arbitrary data or perform other actions exposed by shortcodes installed on the site.",
"id": "GHSA-5jv4-j9f2-3247",
"modified": "2026-10-16T03:30:24Z",
"published": "2026-10-16T03:30:24Z",
"references": [
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-100159"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/includes/class-ays-pb-data.php#L79"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/public/class-ays-pb-public.php#L3389"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/public/partials/ays-pb-public-templates.php#L4299"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/public/partials/ays-pb-public-templates.php#L4560"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/public/partials/ays-pb-public-templates.php#L69"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.3/public/class-ays-pb-public.php"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/535c4796-d1aa-4cd1-922e-f9dcf216f76d?source=cve"
}
],
"schema_version": "1.4.0",
"severity": [
{
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N",
"type": "CVSS_V3"
}
]
}
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