WordPress security changelog
MEDIUM CVE-2026-15425 Deferred

Yoast SEO post slugs permit stored XSS in the bulk editor

Yoast SEO through 28.0 lets an Author store a malicious percent-encoded post_name value when pretty permalinks are enabled. The legacy SEO bulk editor calls get_permalink() for the post, removes the site prefix, decodes the resulting display slug with rawurldecode() and places it into the Page URL/Slug link without HTML escaping. Decoding therefore turns the stored slug back into attacker-controlled markup that can execute in the browser of a user who views the affected bulk-editor row.

CVE / CNA score 6.4 CVSS 3.1 · security@wordfence.com
NVD score Pending NVD has not published its own CVSS assessment.
Component
Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI
Plugin slug
wordpress-seo
Affected
<= 28.0
Safe version
28.1
Published
Jul 25, 2026
Weakness
CWE-79 — Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

This CVE was published Jul 25, 2026 and is one of 11 known issues for this plugin.

What to do

Update, patch or deactivate.

Update Yoast SEO to 28.1 or later. Version 28.1 replaces the legacy bulk-editor interface with the redesigned implementation. Review Author-controlled post slugs for unexpected percent-encoded markup before opening the bulk editor on a vulnerable installation.

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 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Post Slug (post_name) in all versions up to, and including, 28.0 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with author-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. This requires pretty permalinks to be enabled, as the exploit chain depends on get_permalink() embedding the stored percent-encoded post_name in the generated URL.

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

References

Primary and upstream sources