CVE-2026-97020: PO/MO Editor stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability
medium 6.4 plugin closed published 2026-10-14 · updated 2026-10-15
- Affected versions
- 1.4.2 and older
- Fixed in
- unknown
- Severity
- Medium · CVSS 6.4
- Active installs
- closed
- Type
- Stored cross-site scripting (XSS)
What an attacker needs
- Access: A logged-in account with Subscriber-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
- Replace PO/MO Editor. A closed plugin gets no updates through WordPress, so this hole stays open.
- Deactivate and delete it once you have a replacement (Plugins → Deactivate → Delete). Deactivating alone leaves its files on the server.
- Not sure which version you run? Check your version against every known PO/MO Editor issue.
- If you ran an affected version and something looks off (new admin users, spam pages, redirects), run the free scan below.
The advisory
The PO/MO Editor plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'podata' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 1.4.2 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. The injected payload is loaded as a replacement .po/.mo translation file via the plugin's own load_textdomain_mofile filter, causing WordPress to serve the attacker-written translation in place of the original core strings.
References
- NVD CVE-2026-97020 nvd.nist.gov
- Wordfence advisory www.wordfence.com
- Plugin source plugins.trac.wordpress.org
Related
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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/pomo-editor (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.