WordPress security changelog
MEDIUM CVE-2026-19985 Deferred

Relevanssi – A Better Search: Cross-site scripting

Relevanssi – A Better Search is affected by cross-site scripting. The vulnerable path is reachable without authentication. Injected script can execute in the affected site's origin when the vulnerable output is viewed. The published affected range is <= 4.28.1.

CVE / CNA score 6.1 CVSS 3.1 · security@wordfence.com
NVD score Pending NVD has not published its own CVSS assessment.
Component
Relevanssi – A Better Search
Plugin slug
relevanssi
Affected
<= 4.28.1
Safe version
See mitigation notes
Published
Sep 11, 2026
Weakness
CWE-79 — Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

This CVE was published Sep 11, 2026 and is one of 15 known issues for this plugin.

What to do

Update, patch or deactivate.

No fixed release is identified. Update Relevanssi – A Better Search when a release after 4.28.1 becomes available; until then, disable and remove it when the site's risk warrants. The official upstream changelog lists version 4.28.3, which is newer than the published affected range. Its changelog does not clearly confirm this specific fix, so it is not counted as a known-safe release.

No confirmed safe version is listed. Consider a vendor-supported patch or temporarily restricting the affected functionality while you assess the risk.

Deactivate only when warranted by your risk profile, or when advised by your hosting provider in the limited circumstances where the vulnerability cannot otherwise be mitigated. If you’re unsure which action is appropriate, contact Fused or your hosting provider for guidance.

Source record

Technical 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.

CVE / CNA vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

References

Primary and upstream sources