Medium severity · published Oct 2, 2026
CVE-2026-78471
Autoptimize <= 3.1.15.1 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Comment Author Name
5.4
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
The Autoptimize plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Comment Author Name in all versions up to, and including, 3.1.15.1 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. Exploitation requires an administrator to have enabled Autoptimize's 'Lazy-load images?' option, the w3-total-cache/w3-total-cache.php file to be present on disk with the plugin disabled, a class named Minify_HTML to be loaded into scope by another plugin, and the malicious comment to be approved by a moderator before the payload renders.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None
Scope
Changed
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 13% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
AU
Autoptimize · optimizingmatters
through 3.1.15.1 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-78471
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-78471
www.wordfence.com
https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/b14f574d-1490-423e-9ef3-ce8f844cb8f0?source=cve
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/autoptimize/tags/3.1.15.1/classes/autoptimizeImages.php#L1232
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/autoptimize/tags/3.1.15.1/classes/autoptimizeImages.php#L960
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/autoptimize/tags/3.1.15.1/classes/autoptimizeImages.php#L908
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&new=3713884%40autoptimize%2Ftags%2F3.1.16&old=3657650%40autoptimize%2Ftags%2F3.1.15.1
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3713884/autoptimize/trunk/classes/autoptimizeImages.php
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