Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessObtain contributor-level WordPress account
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DeliveryCraft malicious 'dir' shortcode attribute
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ExploitStore payload in post/page content
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ExecutionVictim loads injected page
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PersistScript executes in victim browser
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ImpactHijack session or perform admin actions
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A05:2025 - Injection
ASVS 5.0
V1 - Encoding and Sanitization Output encoding, context-aware escaping
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Initial Access, Execution The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires an authenticated account with contributor-level privileges or higher on a WordPress site running the Name Directory plugin version 1.34.2 or earlier; the attacker injects the payload through the 'dir' attribute of the plugin's shortcode. Execution of the stored script is triggered when any user subsequently accesses the page containing the injected shortcode, so impact depends on a victim viewing that content. Limiting factors: the contributor authentication requirement (sites that restrict or vet user registration greatly reduce exposure), the need for the vulnerable plugin to be installed and the malicious shortcode to be rendered on a viewed page, and the fact that the issue is remediated in version 1.34.3. |
| Impact | This is a moderate-severity stored XSS (CVSS 6.4, CWE-79) with signals that collectively point to a low-to-moderate real-world priority rather than an urgent threat. The CVSS vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N) indicates network-reachable, low-complexity exploitation, but PR:L confirms the attacker must already hold an authenticated contributor-level (or higher) account, which is a meaningful barrier on well-managed sites and limits the viable attacker population to insiders or compromised/registration-open accounts. No EPSS score, CISA KEV listing, or public POC is present in the provided data, so there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis and no evidence of active exploitation - exploitation status and probability signals are simply absent, not conflicting. The scope change (S:C) and only Low confidentiality/integrity impacts are consistent with XSS executing in a victim's browser rather than full server compromise. Net: a legitimate patch-worthy issue, but not a drop-everything priority given the authentication prerequisite and absence of exploitation evidence. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker who holds (or registers for) a contributor-level account on a WordPress site running Name Directory ≤1.34.2 embeds a malicious payload in the 'dir' shortcode attribute within a post or page. When an administrator or other user later views the page containing that injected directory shortcode, the script executes in their browser session. No public exploit code is identified at time of analysis, but the low attack complexity makes exploitation straightforward for any user with the required role. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 16, 2026
Stored cross-site scripting in the WordPress Name Directory plugin (all versions up to and including 1.34.2) allows authenticated attackers holding contributor-level privileges or higher to inject arbitrary JavaScript via the 'dir' attribute of the plugin's shortcode, which is then persisted and executed in the browser of any user who later views the affected page. The issue is a plugin-specific input sanitization and output escaping failure (CWE-79) rather than a WordPress core privilege escalation, and it is remediated in version 1.34.3. No public exploit identified at time of analysis and no CISA KEV listing; the CVSS 3.1 base score is 6.4 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N), reflecting moderate severity with low confidentiality and integrity impact and scope change from the plugin context into the victim's browsing session.
RemediationAI
Vendor-released patch: 1.34.3. Site administrators should update the Name Directory plugin to version 1.34.3 or later through the WordPress plugin updater or by downloading the fixed tag from the plugin repository; the fix is documented in the changeset at https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&old=3723785%40name-directory&new=3723785%40name-directory and corroborated by the escaping changes in shortcode.php at lines 284 and 344 of the 1.34.3 tag. Where immediate upgrade is not possible, the most effective compensating control is to remove or downgrade contributor and higher roles on any site running the plugin, since the vulnerability requires an authenticated account at contributor level or above - the trade-off is that this blocks legitimate content workflows for those users. If the plugin's directory shortcode is not in active use, deactivating and deleting the plugin eliminates the attack surface entirely. Administrators can also scan existing posts and pages for the plugin shortcode with an unexpected or script-bearing 'dir' attribute, since stored payloads persist after patching and would otherwise survive the upgrade; a content search of the database is the practical way to find them. A Web Application Firewall with rules tuned to block script content inside shortcode attributes offers partial, bypassable protection and should not be treated as a substitute for upgrading. Note that patching closes the injection vector but does not automatically remove already-stored payloads, so remediation should pair the version upgrade with the content review described above.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
The vulnerability resides in the Name Directory WordPress plugin maintained by Jeroen Peters (CPE cpe:2.3:a:jeroenpeters1986:name_directory), a plugin that renders directory-style listings through a shortcode. WordPress shortcodes accept attributes parsed by helpers such as shortcode_atts(), and the 'dir' attribute value is used in the plugin's shortcode rendering logic without adequate sanitization on input and escaping on output. The patch references point to shortcode.php within the 1.34.3 plugin tag (lines 284 and 344) plus changeset 3723785 in the WordPress plugin Trac repository, indicating the fix hardened both the attribute handling path and the point where the value is emitted into HTML. The root cause class is CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation, i.e., cross-site scripting): untrusted shortcode attribute content authored by a low-privileged user is stored in post content and later rendered to other users without contextual HTML/attribute encoding. Because contributors on a standard WordPress install cannot post unfiltered HTML, this is a plugin-level escaping defect, and the scope-change metric in the CVSS vector reflects that the injected script executes in the security context of the victim user's session rather than the authoring user's.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Network-reachable shortcode injection by a low-privileged contributor (PR:L) yields a scope-changing stored XSS (S:C) with low confidentiality and integrity impact in the victim's browser and no availability impact.
Primary rating from Vendor (Wordfence).
CVSS VectorVendor: Wordfence
DescriptionCVE.org
The Name Directory plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via 'dir' Shortcode Attribute in all versions up to, and including, 1.34.2 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Cross-Site Scripting occurs when an application accepts untrusted data and sends it to a web browser without proper validation or encoding.
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EUVD-2026-102823
GHSA-4gw5-q9r5-mj9r
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB