CVE-2026-12938: Newsletters <= 4.15 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via 'target' Shortcode Attribute

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-12938 is a medium (CVSS 6.4) Cross-site Scripting vulnerability in contrid newsletters. EPSS estimates a 0.35% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 27.3% of scored vulnerabilities. Fixed in 4.16.

Timeline

1. 29-07-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 29-07-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

The Newsletters Lite plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'target' attribute of the [newsletters_post] shortcode in versions up to and including 4.15. This is due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping in the posts_single() function which propagates the attacker-controlled 'target' attribute into the global $wpml_target, and in the shortcode_posts() 'post_thumbnail' handler which concatenates $wpml_target into a target="..." HTML attribute without esc_attr(). 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.

• CWE-79Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')The product does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users.