# CVE-2021-24323: Woocommerce < 5.2.0 - Authenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)

> Authenticated administrators can inject malicious scripts via tax class fields in WooCommerce when taxes are enabled, leading to stored XSS.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** An administrator
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 17 May 2021
- **Updated:** 3 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-mp46-7x6q-f28m

## What is CVE-2021-24323?

CVE-2021-24323 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in Automattic WooCommerce, published on 17 May 2021. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

When taxes are enabled, the "Additional tax classes" field was not properly sanitised or escaped before being output back in the admin dashboard, allowing high privilege users such as admin to use XSS payloads even when the unfiltered_html is disabled

Weakness: CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2021-24323?

2 open source packages ship an affected version, including woocommerce/woocommerce. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `woocommerce/woocommerce` | Packagist | All versions | 5.2.0 |
| `woocommerce/woocommerce` | Packagist | All versions | 5.2.0 |

Products: Woocommerce Woocommerce.

## How do I fix CVE-2021-24323?

Upgrade woocommerce/woocommerce to 5.2.0 or later.

## Is CVE-2021-24323 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-24323 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Automattic WooCommerce

- [CVE-2019-20891](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-20891/): WooCommerce Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2017-18356](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-18356/): Code injection in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2018-20714](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-20714/): Path traversal in n/a (high 8.1)
- [CVE-2025-5062](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-5062/): WooCommerce <= 9.4.2 - PostMessage-Based Cross-Site Scripting (medium 6.1)
- [CVE-2019-9168](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-9168/): Cross-site scripting in n/a (medium 6.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2021-24323 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2021-24323 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in Automattic WooCommerce, published on 17 May 2021. An attacker needs administrator access to exploit it, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2021-24323 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- woocommerce/woocommerce (Packagist): affected all versions; fixed in 5.2.0
- woocommerce/woocommerce (Packagist): affected all versions; fixed in 5.2.0

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-24323/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-24323/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2021-24323
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-24323
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-24323

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2021-24323/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.