CVE-2026-119165

WPBakery Page Builder <= 9.0.1 - Authenticated (Subscriber+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Post Author Display Name

2026-11-06 14:02
Rafie Muhammad

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 9.1
Affected Plugin
WPBakery Page Builder
Affected Version
<= 9.0.1
CVSS
6.4Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation
CVE
CVE-2026-119165
View all WPBakery Page Builder vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-119165 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation vulnerability in the WPBakery Page Builder WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 9.0.1. It carries a CVSS score of 6.4 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Subscriber level or above. The issue is fixed in version 9.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2026, reported by Rafie Muhammad.

Vulnerability Overview

The WPBakery Page Builder plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'display_name / nickname' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 9.0.1 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. Successful execution requires that at least one public post attributed to the attacker's account be rendered through a Basic Grid using a Grid Builder template with the Post Author element configured to link to the post author; Author-level users can satisfy this precondition unassisted, while Subscribers depend on an administrator having assigned or published a post under their account.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no interaction from a victim user.

CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation

Reaching this weakness in WPBakery Page Builder <= 9.0.1 takes an account at Subscriber level or above. Cross-site scripting happens when input from a request is written into a page without being escaped for the context it lands in, so the browser parses attacker-supplied text as markup or script.

Injected script runs with the privileges of whoever views the affected page, which is how these flaws turn into administrator session theft, silent account creation or persistent backdoors in page content. For WPBakery Page Builder the fix is 9.1: builds <= 9.0.1 are affected, anything from 9.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 9.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

An attacker needs Subscriber access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: WPBakery Page Builder 9.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-119165https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/9a547cd3-1282-466e-90a4-ef980a9e06a4https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-119165

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C