What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities
CVE-2026-4278: Simple Download Counter <= 2.3 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via 'text' Shortcode Attribute
- Severity: medium (CVSS 6.4 v3.1)
- Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
- EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
- Public exploit or detection template: none known
- Published: 2026-03-26 · updated 2026-06-17
- Weakness: CWE-79
Description
The Simple Download Counter plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'sdc_menu' shortcode in all versions up to, and including, 2.3. This is due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on user-supplied shortcode attributes, specifically the 'text' and 'cat' attributes. The 'text' attribute is output directly into HTML content on line 159 without any escaping (e.g., esc_html()). The 'cat' attribute is used unescaped in HTML class attributes on lines 135 and 157 without esc_attr(). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
Affected products
- specialk Simple Download Counter: through 2.3
References
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/simple-download-counter/tags/2.3/inc/functions-shortcode.php#L135
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/simple-download-counter/tags/2.3/inc/functions-shortcode.php#L157
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/simple-download-counter/tags/2.3/inc/functions-shortcode.php#L159
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/simple-download-counter/tags/2.3/inc/functions-shortcode.php#L92
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/simple-download-counter/trunk/inc/functions-shortcode.php#L135
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/simple-download-counter/trunk/inc/functions-shortcode.php#L157
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/simple-download-counter/trunk/inc/functions-shortcode.php#L159
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/simple-download-counter/trunk/inc/functions-shortcode.php#L92
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&old=3487364%40simple-download-counter&new=3487364%40simple-download-counter&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/f23dec73-9031-4829-a84b-4979c8e8ded4?source=cve
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