Is User Submitted Posts safe? Known vulnerabilities and latest version

The User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored DOM-Based Cross-Site Scripting via the 'user-submitted-content' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 20260916 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. On a default installation the submitted post is held as Pending and requires admin approval before the payload is reachable by other visitors; however, if the plugin's "publish immediately" option is enabled, no approval step exists and the stored payload becomes live without any moderator interaction.

Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in Jeff Starr User Submitted Posts allows Stored XSS. This issue affects User Submitted Posts: from n/a through 20260810.

The User Submitted Posts WordPress plugin before 20260608 does not escape a submitted value before outputting it in an admin-configured display template, leading to a Stored Cross-Site Scripting that can be triggered by unauthenticated users when a non-default display option is enabled.

The User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Incorrect Authorization in all versions up to, and including, 20260113. This is due to the `usp_get_submitted_category()` function accepting user-submitted category IDs from the POST body without validating them against the admin-configured allowed categories stored in `usp_options['categories']`. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to assign submitted posts to arbitrary categories, including restricted ones, by crafting a direct POST request with manipulated `user-submitted-category[]` values, bypassing the frontend category restrictions.

The User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the custom fields in all versions up to, and including, 20251210 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

The User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the plugin's 'usp_access' shortcode in all versions up to, and including, 20260110 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on user supplied attributes. 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.

URL Redirection to Untrusted Site ('Open Redirect') vulnerability in Jeff Starr User Submitted Posts user-submitted-posts allows Phishing.This issue affects User Submitted Posts: from n/a through <= 20251121.

The User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via admin settings in all versions up to, and including, 20240319 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with administrator-level permissions and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. This only affects multi-site installations and installations where unfiltered_html has been disabled.

The User Submitted Posts WordPress plugin before 20240516 does not sanitise and escape some of its settings, which could allow high privilege users such as admin to perform Stored Cross-Site Scripting attacks even when the unfiltered_html capability is disallowed (for example in multisite setup)

Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in Jeff Starr User Submitted Posts allows Stored XSS.This issue affects User Submitted Posts: from n/a through 20230901.

Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type vulnerability in Jeff Starr User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End.This issue affects User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End: from n/a through 20230902.

The User Submitted Posts plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the plugin's [usp_gallery] shortcode in versions up to, and including, 20230811 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on user supplied attributes like 'before'. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with contributor-level and above permissions to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

The User Submitted Posts plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the ‘user-submitted-content’ parameter in versions up to, and including, 20230809 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

The User Submitted Posts plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary file uploads due to missing file type validation in the usp_check_images function in versions up to, and including, 20190312. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to upload arbitrary files on the affected sites server which may make remote code execution possible.

The user-submitted-posts plugin before 20160215 for WordPress has XSS via the user-submitted-content field.