CVE-2026-102173: Kirki stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability
high 7.2 published 2026-10-07
- Affected versions
- 6.3.1 and older
- Fixed in
- 6.3.2 *
- Latest version
- 6.4.1
- Severity
- High · CVSS 7.2
- Active installs
- 400,000+
- Type
- Stored cross-site scripting (XSS)
* The source does not name a fixed version; this is the first wordpress.org release after the last affected version.
What an attacker needs
- Access: None. No account or login is needed.
CVSS vector (score by Wordfence): CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
What to do now
- Update Kirki to 6.3.2 or newer (the latest is 6.4.1): Dashboard → Updates, or Plugins → “update now”.
- If you cannot update right away, deactivate it until you can.
- Turn on auto-updates for it: Plugins → “Enable auto-updates” on its row.
- Not sure which version you run? Check your version against every known Kirki issue.
With WP-CLI:
wp plugin get kirki --field=version. - If you ran an affected version and something looks off (new admin users, spam pages, redirects), run the free scan below.
The advisory
The Kirki – Freeform Page Builder, Website Builder & Customizer plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via registration metadata in all versions up to, and including, 6.3.1 This is due to insufficient escaping in `ExceptionalElements::image_element()`, which concatenates a user-meta value straight into an `<img src="…">` attribute. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts that execute whenever a user accesses a page rendering a Kirki users collection whose image element is bound to one of the nine registration meta fields. Requires public user registration to be enabled and a published page carrying a `kirki-register` element, which prints the required element nonce into the public markup.
References
- NVD CVE-2026-102173 nvd.nist.gov
- Wordfence advisory www.wordfence.com
- Code change (fix) plugins.trac.wordpress.org
- Plugin source plugins.trac.wordpress.org
Related
Ran an affected version? Check your site for signs of a hack
The free scan reads the public side of your site and looks for spam pages, hidden redirects, injected scripts and blacklist entries. No login, no install, about a minute.
Where this data comes from
- CVE record, score and references: NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD), checked 2026-11-04. This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- Versions and install counts: wordpress.org/plugins/kirki (Plugins API), fetched 2026-11-01.
- The summary, “what an attacker needs” and “what to do” sections are our plain-English reading of the record and the plugin's release history; the quoted description is the record's own text. Spot an error? Email Daniel.