CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-24525 — The Shortcodes Ultimate WordPress plugin before 5.10.2 allows users with Contributor roles to perform stored XSS via shortcode attributes

Medium CVSS 5.4

The Shortcodes Ultimate WordPress plugin before 5.10.2 allows users with Contributor roles to perform stored XSS via shortcode attributes. Note: the plugin is inconsistent in its handling of shortcode attributes; some do escape, most don't, and there are even some attributes that are insecure by design (like [su_button]'s onclick attribute).

Severity
Medium
CVSS
5.4 (3.1)
Published
2021-09-20
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
php/wordpress
Weaknesses
CWE-79

Affected products

  • getshortcodes / shortcodes_ultimate

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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