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PPWP Password Plugin EUVDEUVD-2025-210770

| CVE-2025-9878 MEDIUM
Cross-site Scripting (XSS) (CWE-79)
2026-08-25 Wordfence GHSA-gr4q-7mpw-mwqc
6.4
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: Wordfence
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Obtain or register contributor-level WordPress account
  2. Delivery
    Craft malicious attribute within 'ppwp' shortcode
  3. Exploit
    Publish page or post containing injected payload
  4. Execution
    Victim user or administrator browses to injected page
  5. Persist
    Stored script executes in victim's browser context
  6. Impact
    Exfiltrate session token or perform privileged 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 a valid WordPress account with contributor role or higher (PR:L confirmed by the provided CVSS vector). The attacker must have the ability to create or edit posts or pages that render the 'ppwp' shortcode. A victim - any site user, including administrators - must subsequently browse to the page containing the injected shortcode for the stored payload to execute in their browser. Exploitation is bounded by: (1) sites where untrusted or externally registered users hold contributor-level roles or above; (2) WordPress installations running PPWP plugin version 1.9.21 or earlier; and (3) the requirement that at least one other user views the attacker-controlled content. Sites that disable open contributor registration or require administrator approval for all editorial accounts have a materially reduced attack surface.

Impact

The CVSS 6.4 Medium vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N) reflects network-accessible, low-complexity exploitation gated only by contributor-level authentication. Real-world risk is moderate but non-trivial: contributor accounts are a routine presence on WordPress sites with editorial workflows or guest posting, making the authentication barrier comparatively low. The Scope:Changed flag elevates practical impact - a stolen admin session obtained via the injected XSS can lead to full site takeover. No CISA KEV listing is present and no public exploit code is identified in available intelligence, reducing immediate mass-exploitation risk; however, WordPress plugin XSS vulnerabilities with low-privilege triggers are frequently targeted by automated scanning infrastructure, so the absence of current exploitation is not a permanent condition. The combination of stored persistence (payload survives across sessions) versus reflected XSS, and the low privilege requirement, makes this meaningfully more dangerous than the raw CVSS midrange score might suggest to teams triaging a large vulnerability backlog.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An attacker registers or compromises a contributor-level WordPress account on the target site, then creates a post or page embedding a 'ppwp' shortcode with a crafted attribute containing injected JavaScript - for example, an inline event handler or script tag - that the plugin outputs unsanitized. When any site visitor, including a logged-in administrator, navigates to that page, the stored script executes in their browser context, allowing the attacker to exfiltrate session cookies, perform authenticated actions under the victim's identity, or install additional malicious content.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
No patch listed yet 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Aug 25, 2026

Stored XSS in the PPWP - Password Protect Pages WordPress plugin (all versions up to and including 1.9.21) allows authenticated contributors to inject persistent malicious scripts via unsanitized attributes in the 'ppwp' shortcode. Any user or administrator who subsequently loads an affected page will execute the injected script in their browser, enabling session hijacking, credential theft, or escalated site compromise. No public exploit code or CISA KEV listing is identified at time of analysis; however, the CVSS Scope:Changed rating reflects meaningful cross-origin impact on visiting users beyond the injecting contributor.

RemediationAI

Update the PPWP - Password Protect Pages plugin to a version beyond 1.9.21 as soon as a patched release is available in the WordPress Plugin Directory. Two upstream commits have been applied to the plugin repository (changesets 3637624 and 3642939 at plugins.trac.wordpress.org), confirming that fixes were submitted upstream; however, the exact released version number incorporating these patches is not confirmed in available data and should be verified directly in the WordPress Plugin Directory or via the Wordfence advisory at https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/99772f4b-4152-42dc-8bde-697bba3d031f. As an interim workaround on sites where immediate update is not feasible, restrict contributor-level role assignment to fully trusted users only, or remove the capability to publish or edit posts from contributors - note that this may break existing editorial workflows. Disabling the 'ppwp' shortcode output entirely via a capability-restriction plugin is an alternative but will break password-protected pages that rely on it. Additionally, deploying a WAF rule (Wordfence provides one for premium subscribers) targeting malicious shortcode attribute injection can reduce exposure during the patching window.

Affected VersionsENISA

PPWP – Password Protect Pages 0 ≤1.9.21

Affected Packages

euvd ppwp_password_protect_pages no fix

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 originates in the shortcode handler at includes/services/class-ppw-shortcode.php (line 544, referenced via the plugins.trac.wordpress.org source browser for the 1.9.12 tag) where user-supplied shortcode attributes are written to HTML output without sanitization or encoding. CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation) describes this root cause class: attacker-controlled string data flows into rendered HTML, enabling script injection. The CPE identifier cpe:2.3:a:buildwps:ppwp_-_password_protect_pages:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* confirms the affected component is the buildwps-authored plugin distributed under the WordPress.org slug 'password-protect-page'. The CVSS S:C (Scope Changed) metric reflects that the injected payload executes in the browser security context of visiting users - a distinct principal from the contributor who inserted the shortcode.

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Severity by source

Vendor (Wordfence) PRIMARY 6.4 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
vuln.today AI 5.4 MEDIUM

Contributor account required (PR:L); a victim must view the injected page (UI:R); payload executes in visiting user's browser scope (S:C), with no availability impact.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:P/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (Wordfence).

CVSS VectorVendor: Wordfence

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

DescriptionCVE.org

The PPWP - Password Protect WordPress | #1 Most-Reviewed Password Plugin plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the plugin's 'ppwp' shortcode in all versions up to, and including, 1.9.21 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on user supplied attributes. 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

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 91% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
popular WordPress password-protection plugin, not universally deployed
Data Quality
5 sources
Confidence: Medium

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.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.2%
Patch available No
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
No
Human Impact· derived
Medium
Technical Impact
Partial

Priority Score

32
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +32
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

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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