Medium severity · published Sep 11, 2026
CVE-2026-19985
Relevanssi <= 4.28.1 - Reflected Cross-Site Scripting
6.1
CVSS
0.5%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
The Relevanssi – A Better Search plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting in versions up to, and including, 4.28.1 via the 's', 'post_types', and 'orderby' request parameters. This is due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping in the relevanssi_debug_array() function in lib/debug.php, which dumps user-supplied query variables through print_r() inside a <pre> block without HTML escaping. The debug path is enabled by supplying the relevanssi_debug=on request parameter when the administrator has previously enabled the 'Debugging mode' setting; the gate itself is a configuration check with no capability, nonce, or logged-in check (the vendor explicitly suppresses nonce verification on that line). This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that execute if they can successfully trick a user into performing an action such as clicking on a specially crafted link.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None
Scope
Changed
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.5% · higher than 40% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
RA
Relevanssi – A Better Search · comesio
through 4.28.1 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-19985
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-19985
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.27.2/lib/debug.php#L27
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.27.2/lib/debug.php#L68
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.27.2/lib/search.php#L132
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.27.2/lib/search.php#L143
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.27.2/lib/search.php#L562
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.28.1/lib/debug.php#L27
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