CVE-2026-109370: Document Embedder DOM-based cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability
medium 6.4 published 2026-10-28 · updated 2026-10-29
- Affected versions
- 2.4.0 and older
- Fixed in
- 2.4.1 *
- Latest version
- 2.5.0
- Severity
- Medium · CVSS 6.4
- Active installs
- 9,000+
- Type
- DOM-based 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: A logged-in account with Contributor-level access or higher.
CVSS vector (score by Wordfence): CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
What to do now
- Update Document Embedder to 2.4.1 or newer (the latest is 2.5.0): 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 Document Embedder issue.
With WP-CLI:
wp plugin get document-emberdder --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 Document Embedder – let visitors read files without downloading plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored DOM-Based Cross-Site Scripting via the 'content (post_content containing block JSON documentSource.doc)' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 2.4.0 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. The payload is triggered specifically when the victim clicks the embedded document's Download button, which causes the de_track_download AJAX fallback path to programmatically create an anchor with the attacker-controlled href and call .click() — a condition reached because supplying docId=0 causes can_read_document() to return false, bypassing the normal download flow.
References
- NVD CVE-2026-109370 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/document-emberdder (Plugins API), fetched 2026-11-04.
- 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.