CVE-2026-4142

Description

The Sentence To SEO (keywords, description and tags) plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'Permanent keywords' field in all versions up to and including 1.0. This is due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. The plugin reads user input via filter_input_array(INPUT_POST) which applies no HTML sanitization (FILTER_DEFAULT), stores it unsanitized to the WordPress options table via update_option(), and then outputs the stored value directly into a textarea element without any escaping using PHP short echo tags (<?= ?>). An attacker can break out of the textarea element using a closing </textarea> tag and inject arbitrary HTML/JavaScript. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with administrator-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses the plugin's settings page.

CVSS v3.1 Score

4.4

MEDIUM

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

EPSS — Exploit Prediction

0.0003

Probability of exploitation

0.07%

Percentile rank

EPSS estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A higher score means more likely to be exploited.

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-79 Cross-site Scripting (XSS)

References

Other References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-4142? +

The Sentence To SEO (keywords, description and tags) plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'Permanent keywords' field in all versions up to and including 1.0. This is due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. The plugin reads user input via filter_input_array(INPUT_POST) which applies no HTML sanitization (FILTER_DEFAULT), stores it unsanitized to the WordPress options table via update_option(), and then outputs the stored value directly into a textarea element without any escaping using PHP short echo tags (<?= ?>). An attacker can break out of the textarea element using a closing </textarea> tag and inject arbitrary HTML/JavaScript. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with administrator-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses the plugin's settings page. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.4 (MEDIUM).

How severe is CVE-2026-4142? +

CVE-2026-4142 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 4.4 out of 10, rated MEDIUM. This is a medium-severity vulnerability that should be remediated as part of regular maintenance. The EPSS score is 0.0003, placing it in the 0th percentile for exploitation probability.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2026-4142? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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