Simple Draft List WordPress Plugin Stored Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerability

A stored cross-site scripting vulnerability has been identified in the Simple Draft List plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions through 2.6.2. The issue arises from inadequate input sanitization and output escaping of the author display name in the 'display_name' post meta. When the 'user_url' meta field is empty, the unescaped display name is inserted into the shortcode output, allowing authenticated attackers with Contributor-level access or higher to inject malicious scripts. This exploitation occurs on pages containing the '[drafts]' shortcode with the '{{author+link}}' template tag.

Impact

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

Reproduction

To reproduce this vulnerability, an authenticated user with Contributor-level access or higher can add a draft post without a URL in the 'user_url' meta field. By using the '[drafts]' shortcode with the '{{author+link}}' template tag, the unescaped display name will be rendered as a link, executing any injected script.

Remediation

Users are advised to update the Simple Draft List plugin to version 2.6.3 or later.