CVE-2026-101920: Molongui Authorship <= 5.2.12 - Unauthenticated Stored DOM-Based Cross-Site Scripting via Comment href Attribute
The Molongui Authorship – Author Boxes, Guest Authors & Co-Authors for WordPress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored DOM-Based Cross-Site Scripting via the 'comment (href attribute inside comment content)' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 5.2.12 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. This is exploitable in the free build because the plugin's author-filter rewriter never appends the ?mbm=true marker to its own anchors (Plugin::haspro() returns false), meaning every href the byline script selects and rewrites is fully attacker-controlled.
Affected Software
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
Which deployments are exposed?
WordPress sites using Molongui Authorship versions up to and including 5.2.12 are affected. The issue is exploitable in the plugin's free build.
Does an attacker need an account or user interaction to inject the payload?
No account or privileges are required to inject the stored payload. The injected script executes when a user accesses a page containing the malicious content.
What input should be investigated for signs of exploitation?
Review comment content for attacker-controlled href attributes, particularly links that may be selected and rewritten by the plugin's byline script. The vulnerable path involves the href attribute inside comment content.