Description
The Popup Box plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary Shortcode Execution in versions 6.4.1 to 6.4.2. This is due to the ays_popup_get_user_ip() function reading the client-controlled Client-IP / X-Forwarded-For / Forwarded / X-Forwarded / Forwarded-For request headers, sanitizing them only with sanitize_text_field() (which does not strip the bracket, quote, space, or '=' characters used by shortcode syntax), substituting the value into a popup body wherever the %%user_ip_address%% token appears (a raw str_replace with no escaping in Ays_Pb_Data::replace_message_variables()), and then passing the resulting body to do_shortcode() in Ays_Pb_Public::ays_autoembed() at output on the wp_footer hook. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary registered shortcodes with attacker-supplied attributes on the server whenever an administrator has added the %%user_ip_address%% token to a popup's Custom Content body, which can be leveraged to read arbitrary data or perform other actions exposed by shortcodes installed on the site.
References7
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/inc…
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/pub…
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/pub…
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/pub…
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.2/pub…
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/ays-popup-box/tags/6.4.3/pub…
- www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/535c4796-d1aa…
Metrics
- CVSS 3.1
-
4.8
MEDIUM
Score source: CNA
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N - EPSS — exploit probability
- 0% percentile: 18 · as of 10 November 2026
- CWE
- CWE-94
Could this be exploited in your environment?
A patch closes the known hole. A penetration test shows what an attacker can still reach — with proof.