Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 2.17
- Affected Plugin
- Post Duplicator
- Affected Version
<= 2.16- CVSS
- 6.1Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
- CVE
CVE-2016-15027
At a glance
CVE-2016-15027 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the Post Duplicator WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.16. It carries a CVSS score of 6.1 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2.17; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed April 2016.
Vulnerability Overview
The Post Duplicator plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting in versions up to, and including, 2.16 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on the 'post-duplicated' parameter. This makes it possible for attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts that execute in a victim's browser.
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.
CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
Post Duplicator <= 2.16 carries this weakness at post-duplicated, and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. 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 Post Duplicator the fix is 2.17: builds <= 2.16 are affected, anything from 2.17 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 2.17, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to Post Duplicator: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Post Duplicator 2.17 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Post Duplicator
- 7.5CVE-2026-10749: Post Duplicator < 3.0.15 PHP Object Injection
CVE-2026-10749 - 7.5CVE-2026-39474: Post Duplicator <= 3.0.10 PHP Object Injection
CVE-2026-39474 - 4.3CVE-2026-4244: Post Duplicator Authenticated (Contributor+) Post
CVE-2026-4244 - 4.3CVE-2026-4245: Post Duplicator Authorization Bypass
CVE-2026-4245 - 4.3CVE-2026-2301: Post Duplicator Authenticated (Contributor+) Protected
CVE-2026-2301 - 4.3CVE-2025-24736: Post Duplicator <= 2.35 Missing Authorization
CVE-2025-24736 - 4.3CVE-2024-12472: Post Duplicator <= 2.36 Protected Post Disclosure
CVE-2024-12472 - 4.3CVE-2023-49835: Post Duplicator <= 2.31 Missing Authorization
CVE-2023-49835
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