WordPress Posts per Cat Plugin Stored Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability

A stored cross-site scripting vulnerability has been identified in the WordPress Posts per Cat plugin, specifically in versions through 1.4.2. The issue arises from inadequate input sanitization and output escaping of user-supplied attributes in the plugin's 'ppc' shortcode. This vulnerability allows authenticated attackers with contributor-level access or higher to inject arbitrary web scripts into pages, which are executed when users access the affected pages.

Impact

Exploitation of this vulnerability allows for stored cross-site scripting, where injected scripts are executed in the context of the user viewing the page.

Reproduction

To reproduce this vulnerability, an authenticated user with contributor-level access or higher can use the 'ppc' shortcode to inject scripts. The absence of proper sanitization and escaping on the shortcode's attributes enables the execution of the injected scripts when the page is viewed.

Remediation

Users are advised to update the WordPress Posts per Cat plugin to version 1.5.0 or later, where this vulnerability has been patched.