WordPress security changelog
HIGH CVE-2026-97341 Deferred

Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics: Stored DOM XSS through forwarded IP headers

The Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored DOM-Based Cross-Site Scripting via 'X-Real-IP' HTTP Header in all versions up to, and including, 8.16 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 requires no authentication, no nonce, and no capability — the wp_ajax_nopriv_ahcfree_track_visitor endpoint accepts the forged X-Real-IP header from any unauthenticated HTTP request and stores the entity-encoded payload verbatim in the database. The official changelog confirms the fixed release as 8.17.

CVE / CNA score 7.2 CVSS 3.1 · security@wordfence.com
NVD score Pending NVD has not published its own CVSS assessment.
Component
Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics
Plugin slug
visitors-traffic-real-time-statistics
Affected
<= 8.16
Safe version
8.17
Published
Oct 03, 2026
Weakness
CWE-79 — Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

This CVE was published Oct 03, 2026 and is one of 5 known issues for this plugin.

What to do

Update, patch or deactivate.

Update Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics to 8.17 or a later supported release. An application-level fix should validate forwarded IP values as actual IP addresses, preserve escaping through DOM rendering, and clean previously stored malicious visitor values.

A safe version is available, so updating to that version or later is the preferred remediation. If an immediate update is not practical, consider a targeted application patch or temporarily restricting the affected functionality.

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 Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored DOM-Based Cross-Site Scripting via 'X-Real-IP' HTTP Header in all versions up to, and including, 8.16 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 requires no authentication, no nonce, and no capability — the wp_ajax_nopriv_ahcfree_track_visitor endpoint accepts the forged X-Real-IP header from any unauthenticated HTTP request and stores the entity-encoded payload verbatim in the database.

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

References

Primary and upstream sources