CVE-2026-100159: ays-pro popup box – create countdown, coupon, video, contact form popups Code Injection

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-100159 is a medium (CVSS 4.8) Code Injection vulnerability in ays-pro popup box – create countdown, coupon, video, contact form popups. EPSS estimates a 0.26% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 16.3% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 16-10-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 16-10-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

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.

• CWE-94Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')The product constructs all or part of a code segment using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the syntax or behavior of the intended code segment.