No External Links <= 5.2.0 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Log URL via /goto/{base64} Redirect
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 5.3.0
- Affected Plugin
- No External Links
- Affected Version
<= 5.2.0- CVSS
- 7.2High
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE-2026-95670
At a glance
CVE-2026-95670 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the No External Links WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 5.2.0. It carries a CVSS score of 7.2 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 5.3.0; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2026, reported by Afifudin Maarif.
Vulnerability Overview
The No External Links plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Log URL via /goto/{base64} Redirect in all versions up to, and including, 5.2.0 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 only exploitable when the administrator has enabled the 'Link Encoding: Base64' option in the plugin settings.
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 privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user.
CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Reaching this weakness in No External Links <= 5.2.0 takes no account at all. 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 No External Links the fix is 5.3.0: builds <= 5.2.0 are affected, anything from 5.3.0 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 5.3.0, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: No External Links 5.3.0 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Same weakness class
Other vulnerabilities in No External Links
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