CVE-2026-15780

WP Statistics <= 14.16.8 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via 'utm_campaign' Parameter

2026-08-18 17:50
tipsen

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 14.16.9
Affected Plugin
WP Statistics – Simple, privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative
Affected Version
<= 14.16.8
CVSS
7.2High
Weakness type
CWE-79 · Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')
CVE
CVE-2026-15780
View all WP Statistics – Simple, privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-15780 is a high-severity Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in the WP Statistics WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 14.16.8. 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 14.16.9; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2026, reported by tipsen.

Vulnerability Overview

The WP Statistics – Simple, privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'utm_campaign' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 14.16.8 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. The payload can be planted without authentication via the public /wp-statistics/v2/hit REST endpoint, because the required signature is exposed on the public homepage and a base64-encoded page_uri POST parameter overrides the previously sanitized REQUEST_URI, allowing the malicious utm_campaign value to bypass sanitization and be stored in the database.

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')

WP Statistics <= 14.16.8 carries this weakness at utm_campaign, 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 WP Statistics the fix is 14.16.9: builds <= 14.16.8 are affected, anything from 14.16.9 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 14.16.9, 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: WP Statistics 14.16.9 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-15780https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b5baecfe-ce0b-4cec-8462-bfd7eadd41e9https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-15780

Related records

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