CVE-2026-120477

Stop Spammers Classic <= 2026.6 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via 'author' Parameter

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 2026.7
Affected Plugin
Stop Spammers Classic
Affected Version
<= 2026.6
CVSS
4.7Medium
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation
CVE
CVE-2026-120477
View all Stop Spammers Classic vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-120477 is a medium-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation vulnerability in the Stop Spammers Classic WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2026.6. It carries a CVSS score of 4.7 (reachable over the network). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 2026.7; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed November 2026, reported by Mohamed Amgad Khater (mamgad).

Vulnerability Overview

The Stop Spammers Classic plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'author' POST parameter in versions up to, and including, 2026.6. An unauthenticated POST handled on init stores the attacker-supplied author field (after sanitize_text_field, which does not escape single quotes) into the ss_stop_sp_reg_stats option history. The Log Report admin page then renders that stored value inside a single-quoted JavaScript string within a double-quoted onclick attribute using esc_js(); because esc_js() uses _wp_specialchars with ENT_COMPAT it does not escape single quotes, allowing the stored value to break out of the JS string literal and inject arbitrary JavaScript. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that execute whenever an administrator with manage_options access clicks the 'Report to SFS' link on an attacker-poisoned log row (the StopForumSpam API key must be configured for that link to be rendered — the field is empty by default). Successful exploitation additionally requires an action by an administrator — the attacker cannot trigger the vulnerability on their own.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, and no privileges on the target site.

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

Stop Spammers Classic <= 2026.6 carries this weakness at author, and reaching it 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 Stop Spammers Classic the fix is 2026.7: builds <= 2026.6 are affected, anything from 2026.7 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 2026.7, 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: Stop Spammers Classic 2026.7 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

Related records

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