Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessIdentify site running vulnerable minifier plugin
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DeliveryCraft payload matching predictable placeholder hash
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ExploitSubmit input processed by HTML minifier
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ExecutionPoisoned attributes stored in cached page
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PersistVictim/admin loads minified page
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ImpactScript executes, steal session or hijack account
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 that the target site runs a vulnerable version of Autoptimize (<3.1.15), Clearfy Cache (<2.4.2), or Speed Optimizer (<7.7.9) with the HTML minification feature enabled - that feature is the vulnerable code path, so sites with HTML minify disabled are not exposed. The attacker must supply input that reaches the minifier and must format it to match the predictable replacement-hash placeholder pattern (feasible precisely because the hash is predictable and the restoration regex is abusable). No authentication is required (PR:N), but per CVSS UI:R the payload only fires when a victim loads the affected page, so realistic impact depends on a privileged user (e.g., admin) viewing the poisoned output; SSVC Automatable:no reflects that this interaction dependency prevents fully automated mass exploitation. |
| Impact | Signals are mixed and should be weighed together. The CVSS 3.1 base score is 8.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R) with C:H/I:H/A:H, reflecting an unauthenticated, low-complexity network vector that requires victim interaction (loading the poisoned page). Against that, EPSS is very low (0.03%, 8th percentile) and CISA SSVC rates it Exploitation: poc, Automatable: no, Technical Impact: total - meaning a working concept exists but mass, automated exploitation is not expected, though a successful hit is fully impactful. The NVD impact metrics (C:H/I:H/A:H) are notably aggressive for a stored XSS; in practice XSS impact is often Low unless it lands in a privileged/admin session, so treat the 'total' rating as a plausible worst case (e.g., admin session theft leading to site takeover) rather than guaranteed on every install. This is a real, patch-now issue for exposed WordPress sites given unauthenticated access and public POC, but the low EPSS and non-automatable SSVC suggest opportunistic/targeted rather than worm-like exploitation. Note the tension: CVSS UI:R plus SSVC Automatable:no both indicate a victim-interaction dependency that tempers the otherwise 'unauthenticated critical' framing. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker submits crafted content to a page that the site later serves through the plugin's HTML minifier, formatting the payload to match the predictable placeholder hash so it survives minification and lands inside an HTML attribute. When a visitor - ideally a logged-in administrator - loads the cached/minified page, the injected attributes execute attacker-controlled script in their browser, enabling session/cookie theft or admin actions. Public POC exploit code from WPScan lowers the barrier, though the CVSS UI:R requirement means a victim must view the poisoned page. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Jul 23, 2026
Unauthenticated stored cross-site scripting affects the Autoptimize (before 3.1.15), Clearfy Cache (before 2.4.2), and Speed Optimizer (before 7.7.9) WordPress plugins, which share a common HTML-minification routine. Because the placeholder hash used to protect content during minification is predictable, an unauthenticated attacker who can get their input processed by the minifier can anticipate the placeholder format and inject arbitrary HTML attributes into the final rendered output. Publicly available exploit code exists (WPScan), a vendor patch is available, and EPSS is low (0.03%), but the impact is total per CISA SSVC; there is no public exploit identified as being used in active attacks.
RemediationAI
Apply the vendor patches by upgrading each plugin to its fixed release: Autoptimize to 3.1.15 or later, Clearfy Cache to 2.4.2 or later, and Speed Optimizer to 7.7.9 or later (Patch available per vendor advisory; consult the WPScan advisory at https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/3ceabf11-23cd-4c38-ba14-014348b0ff2d/ and NVD at https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-3220). If you cannot patch immediately, the most direct compensating control is to disable the HTML minification feature within the affected plugin's settings, which removes the vulnerable placeholder-substitution path at the cost of losing HTML minification performance benefits (CSS/JS optimization can remain enabled). As additional hardening, place the site behind a WAF with XSS/HTML-injection rules and enable a restrictive Content-Security-Policy to limit script execution from injected markup - noting that a strict CSP may break inline scripts and require tuning, and that WAF rules can be bypassed and should not be treated as a substitute for the patch.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 3 packages 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 lives in the shared HTML minification engine used by these three WordPress optimization plugins. During minification, certain content is temporarily swapped out for placeholder tokens and restored afterward; here those tokens are derived from a predictable replacement hash rather than an unguessable secret. Combined with a permissive/abusable regular expression used to match and restore placeholders, an attacker who understands the deterministic placeholder format can craft input that, once reassembled into the minified page, escapes into live HTML attribute context. This is a classic CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation) failure, but the root cause is specifically the predictability of the tokenization scheme rather than a missing output-encoding call. The CPE data (cpe:2.3:a:unknown:autoptimize, :clearfy_cache, :speed_optimizer) confirms the three affected code bases, and the shared behavior strongly implies common upstream minification logic.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Unauthenticated network injection via a predictable hash (PR:N, AC:L) that only fires when a victim views the page (UI:R); XSS crosses into the browser authority (S:C) with typical low confidentiality/integrity impact and no availability effect.
Primary rating from NVD.
CVSS VectorNVD
Lifecycle Timeline
3DescriptionCVE.org
The Autoptimize WordPress plugin before 3.1.15, Clearfy Cache WordPress plugin before 2.4.2, Speed Optimizer WordPress plugin before 7.7.9 are vulnerable to unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) due to a predictable replacement hash used during the HTML minification process and abusing a regular expression. This allows an attacker to inject arbitrary HTML attributes in the final HTML output by anticipating the placeholder format.
Executive ViewAI
WordPress sites running Autoptimize, Clearfy Cache, or Speed Optimizer are vulnerable to unauthenticated injection attacks that could compromise all site visitors and damage organizational reputation. Publicly available exploit code exists; vendor patches are now available and should be deployed immediately across all affected WordPress installations.
Apply vendor patch.
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-2026-30736
GHSA-3jpv-pgxw-p274
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB