Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessReach plugin-handled input field
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DeliverySubmit crafted email-replacement payload
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ExploitPayload stored unsanitized in WordPress DB
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ExecutionAdmin/visitor renders affected page
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PersistInjected JavaScript executes in their session
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ImpactSteal session or perform admin actions
Vulnerability Assessment
| Exploitation Conditions | Exploitation requires the vulnerable Email Address Encoder (<1.0.25) or Email Encoder Premium (<0.3.12) plugin to be installed and active, and the attacker must reach an input path that flows into the plugin's email-replacement routine to plant the stored payload. Injection itself needs no authentication (PR:N), but payload execution is gated by user interaction (UI:R) - a victim, typically a logged-in administrator or visitor, must subsequently render the page containing the stored script for impact to occur. The limiting factors that reduce realistic risk are this required victim interaction and the requirement that the specific plugin be deployed; there is no impact on sites not running these plugins or already on the patched versions. |
| Impact | The supplied CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H, 8.8) rates this High/Critical, but the C:H/I:H/A:H impact is aggressive for a Stored XSS where script runs in a victim's browser rather than directly compromising the server - a more defensible assessment is S:C with low confidentiality/integrity impact (see assessed vector). Real-world signals are mixed: PR:N makes injection trivial and unauthenticated, but UI:R means a privileged user must view the poisoned content for impact to materialize, so this is not a fully autonomous network exploit. POC availability and a WPScan disclosure raise practical risk, yet the absence of KEV listing and the dependency on victim interaction suggest opportunistic rather than confirmed mass exploitation. No EPSS score was provided, so probabilistic exploitation likelihood cannot be cited; no SSVC decision data was supplied either. Net: a genuine priority for sites running these plugins given the public POC and easy injection, but the headline 8.8 likely overstates technical impact for an XSS. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An unauthenticated attacker submits content containing a crafted payload that the plugin's email-replacement logic stores without proper neutralization; the script lies dormant in the database. When a site administrator or other user later views the page, the JavaScript executes in their browser session, enabling session/cookie theft or admin-action forgery. Public exploit code from WPScan lowers the skill required, and the low attack complexity (AC:L) makes the injection reliable, though impact depends on a victim rendering the page (UI:R). |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Jun 25, 2026
Stored cross-site scripting in the Email Address Encoder WordPress plugin (free, before 1.0.25) and its Email Encoder Premium counterpart (before 0.3.12) lets unauthenticated visitors inject persistent JavaScript through the plugin's flawed email-replacement handling. Publicly available exploit code exists (disclosed by WPScan) and a vendor patch is available, but it is not in CISA KEV, so there is no public exploit identified as actively used in the wild. Successful exploitation executes attacker script in the browser of any user who later renders the affected page, typically an authenticated administrator.
RemediationAI
Upgrade to Email Address Encoder 1.0.25 or later, and Email Encoder Premium 0.3.12 or later - a vendor patch is available per the WPScan advisory (https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/bf59610b-98ba-4c05-b2fc-85c163e9a389/), though no further granular fix metadata beyond these threshold versions was provided. If immediate patching is not possible, deactivate and remove the affected plugin to eliminate the vulnerable replacement code (trade-off: email addresses revert to plaintext and lose obfuscation protection), or place a WAF/virtual-patch rule in front of the site to filter script payloads in inputs that flow into email-encoded content (trade-off: rule tuning and possible false positives). Additionally restrict who can submit the content that feeds the replacement routine and audit existing stored content for previously injected payloads, since Stored XSS persists until the underlying records are cleaned.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 2 packages in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
Both plugins exist to obfuscate email addresses in WordPress page content to defeat spam harvesters, performing string substitution on rendered output. The flaw is an improper input-neutralization/output-encoding failure in that email-replacement routine - an Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation issue (CWE-79, Stored XSS), even though the CWE field was supplied as N/A. Because the unsanitized value is stored and re-served, the injected payload executes in the security context of the WordPress site on every subsequent page render. The CPE strings (cpe:2.3:a:unknown:email_address_encoder and cpe:2.3:a:unknown:email-encoder-premium) confirm the two distinct distributions affected; the vendor is listed as 'unknown' in CPE, with WPScan/EUVD as the authoritative sources.
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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 (PR:N, AV:N, AC:L) but execution needs a victim to view the page (UI:R); Stored XSS runs in another security context (S:C) with limited confidentiality/integrity impact and no availability impact.
Primary rating from Vendor (WPScan).
CVSS VectorVendor: WPScan
Lifecycle Timeline
4DescriptionCVE.org
The Email Address Encoder WordPress plugin before 1.0.25, email-encoder-premium WordPress plugin before 0.3.12 does not properly handle email replacement, which could allow unauthenticated users to perform Stored XSS attacks
Articles & Coverage 1
Executive ViewAI
The Email Address Encoder WordPress plugin contains a vulnerability that allows unauthenticated attackers to inject malicious code targeting administrator accounts, affecting any site running versions before 1.0.25 (free) or 0.3.12 (premium). Exploitation could compromise administrative access, site integrity, and sensitive customer data. Publicly available exploit code exists, requiring immediate patching 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.
EUVD-2026-39187
GHSA-gcp6-956h-2589
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
Exploit-DB