CVE-2026-120019: W3 Total Cache (WordPress plugin) · Cross-site Scripting
Affects W3 Total Cache (WordPress plugin)Source CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 5.4 Medium.
Data as of 31 Oct 2026, 07:20 UTC
Thin evidence
One scorer or none| CNA (Wordfence) | CVSS 3.1 | 5.4 |
|---|
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:NExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 31 Oct 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors
A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 30 Oct 2026.
What to do
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| boldgridW3 Total Cache | Affected
| Fixed in– |
AI-suggested
Users should consider disabling HTML Minify or removing the default 'mfunc' entry from the ignored-comment stems list to mitigate the vulnerability. Monitoring vendor advisories for an official fix is recommended. Until a patch is available, restricting or sanitizing user input and limiting exposure to untrusted comments can reduce risk.
Description
The W3 Total Cache WordPress plugin is affected by a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in all versions up to and including 2.10.7. This flaw arises from insufficient input sanitization and output escaping of the 'comment' parameter when HTML Minify is enabled with the default 'mfunc' entry in the ignored-comment stems list. Exploitation requires an attacker to predict a dynamic placeholder namespace based on the server time, which can be inferred from the HTTP Date header. Successful exploitation allows unauthenticated attackers to inject malicious scripts that execute in the context of users visiting the affected pages.
References
- wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/3a14a537-64e7-415b-be8e-a3a9377fd20d?source=cve (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/w3-total-cache/tags/2.10.7/Minify_Plugin.php (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/w3-total-cache/tags/2.10.7/lib/Minify/Minify/IgnoredCommentPreserver.php (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/w3-total-cache/tags/2.10.7/lib/Minify/Minify/IgnoredCommentPreserver.php (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/BoldGrid/w3-total-cache/commit/35c6896332aff6b41888db0595cf09b4c98c814c (opens in a new tab)
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3757452/w3-total-cache/trunk/lib/Minify/Minify/IgnoredCommentPreserver.php (opens in a new tab)