Executive brief
The Email Encoder plugin for WordPress, which is used to protect email addresses from being scraped by bots, contains a security flaw. An unauthenticated attacker can submit a malicious email address through public forms like comments. If an administrator views or approves this content, the attacker can execute malicious scripts in the administrator's browser, potentially leading to unauthorized site changes or data theft.
Technical details
The Email Encoder plugin (versions prior to 2.4.7) is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) because it fails to properly sanitize or escape email addresses retrieved from user-supplied input, such as comment fields. An unauthenticated attacker can inject malicious JavaScript within a 'mailto' link. When a site administrator views the pending comment in the WordPress dashboard or when the comment is rendered on the front end, the script executes in the context of the user's session. This can be used to hijack administrative sessions or perform unauthorized actions on the WordPress site. The issue is fixed in version 2.4.7.
Affected products
- WPScan Email Encoder < 2.4.7
Timeline
- 2026-04-29: disclosed: Publicly published by WPScan
- 2026-04-29: patched: Fixed in version 2.4.7
- 2026-05-20: advisory: NVD publication date