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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DeliveryAuthor page with pbwp_raw_shortcode + Base64 payload
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ExploitPayload bypasses KSES save-time filtering
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ExecutionHigher-privileged user views injected page
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PersistShortcode decodes and echoes script unsanitized
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ImpactScript executes in victim browser, hijack session/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 | Requires an authenticated account with Contributor-level capability or above (PR:L) on a WordPress site running WP Composer - The Easiest Page Builder <=1.0.5, AND that the pbwp_raw_shortcode shortcode is usable in authored content. Exploitation specifically leverages the shortcode handler's Base64-decode-then-echo behavior to bypass WordPress KSES content filtering at save time. Realistic limiting factors: the attacker must already hold or be able to register a contributor+ role (so sites that do not grant untrusted users authoring capability are largely out of scope), and payload execution is deferred until a user (ideally a higher-privileged editor/admin) actually views the injected page - no direct server-side compromise occurs. |
| Impact | This is a moderate, not urgent, priority. CVSS 3.1 base 6.4 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N) reflects a network-reachable but authentication-gated flaw: PR:L confirms an attacker needs a legitimate Contributor-level account or higher, which sharply narrows the population of viable attackers on a hardened site and makes this most relevant to multi-author blogs, membership sites, or environments with open/weak registration. The S:C scope change plus C:L/I:L captures classic stored-XSS impact - script executing in a victim's browser session in the security context of whoever views the injected page (potentially an admin), enabling session/cookie theft, admin-action forgery, or account takeover, but no direct host confidentiality/integrity/availability loss. No EPSS score, no CISA KEV entry, and no public POC are present in the provided data, so there is no public exploit identified at time of analysis and no evidence of active or automatable mass exploitation; SSVC-style triage would land near 'Track', not 'Act'. The notable technical wrinkle is the KSES-bypass mechanism (Base64-encoded payload passes WordPress content filtering at save time, then is decoded and echoed unsanitized), which makes the flaw reliably exploitable despite WP's normal author-content sanitization - a real, credible bug rather than a theoretical one. No signals conflict; the main caveat is that all intelligence derives from a single reporter (Wordfence) and the vendor source-code links, with no independent NVD enrichment (EPSS/KEV absent). |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | On a WordPress site that grants Contributor (or higher) accounts - e.g. a multi-author publication or a site with open registration mapped to a contributor role - an attacker authors a page/post embedding the pbwp_raw_shortcode with a Base64-encoded JavaScript payload, which slips past KSES filtering at save time. When an editor, administrator, or other visitor previews or opens that content, the plugin Base64-decodes and echoes the payload, executing arbitrary script in the victim's browser to hijack the session or perform privileged actions. No public exploit code is identified at time of analysis, but the technique is straightforward given the disclosed vulnerable code path. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Sep 19, 2026
Stored cross-site scripting in WP Composer - The Easiest Page Builder (Ghozylab) affects every release up to and including 1.0.5: the pbwp_raw_shortcode handler Base64-decodes its content and echoes it into the page without sanitization or escaping, so an attacker who can author content through the plugin can persist a script that runs in the browser of anyone who later views the page. Exploitation requires an authenticated account with Contributor-level capability or above (PR:L in the assessed CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N vector), and because the payload is Base64-encoded it contains no raw HTML characters at save time and therefore slips past WordPress's KSES content filtering - execution is deferred until a victim, ideally a higher-privileged editor or administrator, opens the injected page. Impact is limited to client-side script execution within the site origin (low confidentiality and integrity, no availability loss, no server-side compromise); no public exploit code or CISA KEV listing was identified at time of analysis, and consistent with the independent assessment this is a moderate, not urgent, priority.
RemediationAI
No vendor-released patched version number is confirmed by the available data, so the primary action is to check the plugin's Trac/changelog and the linked changeset (https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&old=3482357%40page-builder-wp&new=3482357%40page-builder-wp) for a fix beyond 1.0.5 and update the plugin as soon as a patched release is published - an upstream code change is indicated, but a tagged patched version is not independently confirmed here. Until the plugin is updated, the most effective compensating control is to remove the attack precondition rather than the plugin: audit all Contributor-and-above accounts, stop granting untrusted users authoring capability on sites running this plugin, and re-scan existing post content for Base64-like blobs in pbwp_raw_shortcode blocks (treat anything found as compromised and re-sanitize it), accepting the editorial-workflow trade-off of tighter roles. Sites that do not use the [pbwp_raw_shortcode] shortcode can neutralize the sink by removing the shortcode registration or filtering plugin output through wp_kses(), though this may break legitimate pages built with that shortcode, and deactivating the plugin altogether guarantees safety at the cost of losing all page-builder layouts. Because the payload is Base64-encoded, content- or WAF-style rules that only look for literal <script> strings at save time will not catch it - any filtering added must be applied to the decoded output or must block encoded payloads - and such rule-based defenses are bypassable through alternative encodings, so they should be treated only as interim measures until a patched release is installed. Refer to the Wordfence advisory (https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/7e328f1d-687d-424f-aab7-343bcece90cd?source=cve) for vendor updates.
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 flaw is a classic CWE-79 improper-neutralization-of-output issue (stored variant) inside a WordPress plugin shortcode. WordPress shortcodes are registered callbacks that expand bracketed tokens in post content at render time; the vulnerable handler behind [pbwp_raw_shortcode] takes its attribute/content value, Base64-decodes it, and concatenates the decoded result straight into page output without esc_html(), esc_attr(), or a late-stage wp_kses() pass. KSES is WordPress's save-time HTML sanitizer for lower-privileged roles such as Contributor; it inspects the raw content of a post when it is saved, so an encoded string like an alphanumeric Base64 blob carries no angle brackets or script markers and passes through untouched, while the plugin later reconstitutes the markup at render time in the context of the viewing user's session. The assessed vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N) is consistent with this: remote, low attack complexity, requires a low-privileged authenticated account, no privileges needed beyond Contributor to author, and a scope change (S:C) because the injected script executes in the wider WordPress origin rather than in an isolated security authority. CPE cpe:2.3:a:ghozylab:wp_composer_-_the_easiest_page_builder:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* identifies the vendor as Ghozylab and the wildcard version field matches all affected builds; the vulnerable code path is visible in the plugin source at inc/global/wpc-helpers.php (line 3578 of the 1.0.5 tag and trunk) on the WordPress.org Trac browser, and the accompanying changeset 3482357 shows upstream modification of the plugin after the reported version.
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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 stored XSS requiring a Contributor account (PR:L), no victim interaction beyond normal page viewing (UI:N), scope change to the victim browser (S:C) with limited C/I and no availability impact.
Primary rating from Vendor (Wordfence).
CVSS VectorVendor: Wordfence
DescriptionCVE.org
The WP Composer - The Easiest Page Builder plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'pbwp_raw_shortcode' shortcode in all versions up to, and including, 1.0.5. This is due to the shortcode handler decoding Base64-encoded content and outputting it directly without any sanitization or 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. The Base64 encoding allows the payload to bypass WordPress's KSES content filtering at save time, since the encoded string contains no harmful HTML characters.
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-2026-83549
GHSA-mpx2-87r3-w97m
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB