CVE-2026-100159
The Popup Box plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary Shortcode Execution in versions 6.4.1 to 6.4.2.
Does this matter?
Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.26%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.
Description
The Popup Box plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary Shortcode Execution in versions 6.4.1 to 6.4.2. This is due to the ays_popup_get_user_ip() function reading the client-controlled Client-IP / X-Forwarded-For / Forwarded / X-Forwarded / Forwarded-For request headers, sanitizing them only with sanitize_text_field() (which does not strip the bracket, quote, space, or '=' characters used by shortcode syntax), substituting the value into a popup body wherever the %%user_ip_address%% token appears (a raw str_replace with no escaping in Ays_Pb_Data::replace_message_variables()), and then passing the resulting body to do_shortcode() in Ays_Pb_Public::ays_autoembed() at output on the wp_footer hook. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary registered shortcodes with attacker-supplied attributes on the server whenever an administrator has added the %%user_ip_address%% token to a popup's Custom Content body, which can be leveraged to read arbitrary data or perform other actions exposed by shortcodes installed on the site.
- CVSS 3.1
- 4.8 MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
- EPSS
- 0.26% probability · 17th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-94
- Source
- security@wordfence.com
EPSS moved from 0.3% on 16 October 2026 to 0.3% on 26 October 2026.
References
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/includes/class-ays-pb-data.php#L79
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/public/class-ays-pb-public.php#L3389
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/public/partials/ays-pb-public-templates.php#L4299
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/public/partials/ays-pb-public-templates.php#L4560
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/public/partials/ays-pb-public-templates.php#L69
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.3/public/class-ays-pb-public.php
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/535c4796-d1aa-4cd1-922e-f9dcf216f76d?source=cve
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.