WordPress wordpress core

WordPress Core < 6.0.3 — Stored Cross-Site Scripting via wp-mail.php

eadbfb77-fb9a-4363-acc8-8dd9b87820ebPublished Oct 18, 2022 · Updated Nov 13, 2026

Affected: ≤6.0.2Update to 3.7.40 or 3.8.40 or 3.9.38 or 4.0.37 or 4.1.37 or 4.2.34 or 4.3.30 or 4.4.29 or 4.5.28 or 4.6.25 or 4.7.25 or 4.8.21 or 4.9.22 or 5.0.18 or 5.1.15 or 5.2.17 or 5.3.14 or 5.4.12 or 5.5.11 or 5.6.10 or 5.7.8 or 5.8.6 or 5.9.5 or 6.0.3 or newer

Fixed versions are per release branch: update to the fix for the branch you run.

All remediation steps

Watch core

High7.2CVSS 3.17.2CISA KEVNot listedAccessNo account needed

On this page3

Overview

Advisory ID: eadbfb77-fb9a-4363-acc8-8dd9b87820eb
Product: WordPress wordpress
Affected: ≤6.0.2
Fixed in: 3.7.40, 3.8.40, 3.9.38, 4.0.37, 4.1.37, 4.2.34, 4.3.30, 4.4.29, 4.5.28, 4.6.25, 4.7.25, 4.8.21, 4.9.22, 5.0.18, 5.1.15, 5.2.17, 5.3.14, 5.4.12, 5.5.11, 5.6.10, 5.7.8, 5.8.6, 5.9.5, 6.0.3
Weakness: CWE-79 Cross-Site Scripting
Required access: No account needed
Published: Oct 18, 2022 · updated Nov 13, 2026
Credit: Toshitsugu Yoneyama of Mitsui Bussan Secure Directions, Inc. via JPCERT

Affected≤ 6.0.2
Patched in3.7.40 / 3.8.40 / 3.9.38 / 4.0.37 / 4.1.37 / 4.2.34 / 4.3.30 / 4.4.29 / 4.5.28 / 4.6.25 / 4.7.25 / 4.8.21 / 4.9.22 / 5.0.18 / 5.1.15 / 5.2.17 / 5.3.14 / 5.4.12 / 5.5.11 / 5.6.10 / 5.7.8 / 5.8.6 / 5.9.5 / 6.0.3

7.2

CVSS 3.1 · CNA (Wordfence)

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

What does this vector mean?

AV:N Attack vector: Network
AC:L Attack complexity: Low
PR:N Privileges required: None
UI:N User interaction: None
S:C Scope: Changed
C:L Confidentiality: Low
I:L Integrity: Low
A:N Availability: None

WordPress Core in versions up to 6.0.3 are vulnerable to Cross-Site Scripting via wp-mail.php. This is due to no validation on what level the user was sending the email post and therefore did not perform any sanitization on the submitted post data.

This meant that users without the unfiltered_html capability, with access to submitting posts via email, could inject malicious JavaScript into posts that would execute whenever someone accessed the post. CVE-2022-43500 may be a duplicate of this issue.

Not sure which version you run? Run a passive check — it reads public files only.

Remediation & mitigations

Update to one of the following versions, or a newer patched version: 3.7.40, 3.8.40, 3.9.38, 4.0.37, 4.1.37, 4.2.34, 4.3.30, 4.4.29, 4.5.28, 4.6.25, 4.7.25, 4.8.21, 4.9.22, 5.0.18, 5.1.15, 5.2.17, 5.3.14, 5.4.12, 5.5.11, 5.6.10, 5.7.8, 5.8.6, 5.9.5, 6.0.3
Rotate administrator passwords and application secrets if the site ran a vulnerable version while publicly reachable.

References & provenance

Proof-of-concept & detection

No public proof-of-concept or detection template is known for this vulnerability.

Advisories & patches

Advisorywordfence.com

Timeline

Oct 18, 2022
CVE published
Severity high, CVSS 7.2
Nov 13, 2026
Record last updated

Sources & licenses

Vulnerability data: Wordfence Intelligence. Copyright 2012-2026 Defiant Inc. Licensed under the CC BY-SA 4.0.
CVE® identifiers: Copyright 1999-2026 The MITRE Corporation. Used under the CVE Program. CVE® is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation.
CVSS / CWE: National Vulnerability Database (NVD), shown unmodified. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

How we use these sources