CVE intelligence and bounded remediation
CVE-2021-24471 — Youtube Embed Project Youtube Embed security vulnerability
The YouTube Embed WordPress plugin before 5.2.2 does not validate, escape or sanitise some of its shortcode attributes, leading to Stored XSS issues by 1. using w, h, controls, cc_lang, color, language, start, stop, or style parameter of youtube shortcode, 2. by using style, class, rel, target, width, height, or alt parameter of youtube_thumb shortcode, or 3. by embedding a video whose title or description contains XSS payload (if API key is configured).
- Severity
- Medium
- CVSS
- 5.4 (3.1)
- Published
- 2021-08-16
- CISA KEV
- Not currently listed
- Ecosystem
- php/wordpress
- Weaknesses
- CWE-79
Affected products
- youtube_embed_project / youtube_embed
Matched remediation archetype
Cross-site scripting and unsafe browser output
This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.
Check exposure
- Trace reflected, stored, and DOM-derived untrusted values into HTML, attributes, URLs, styles, scripts, and client-side template sinks.
- Identify affected origins, authenticated user roles, sensitive browser capabilities, and where content is shared across tenants.
- Review framework escaping, rich-text sanitization, legacy templates, and client-side rendering paths.
Remediate safely
- Use context-aware framework output encoding and safe DOM APIs; keep untrusted data out of executable contexts.
- Sanitize intentionally supported markup with a maintained allowlist policy and validate URLs and attributes separately.
- Update affected rendering components and add tests for every output context using inert sentinel markup.
Authoritative sources
Complete CVE record and remediation plan
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