CVE-2026-3618 Cross-site scripting in Columns by BestWebSoft – Additional Columns Plugin for Posts Pages and Widgets
Authenticated attackers can inject arbitrary scripts via the shortcode id attribute, leading to stored XSS execution on victim pages.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-3618?
CVE-2026-3618 is a medium-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in bestweblayout Columns by BestWebSoft – Additional Columns Plugin for Posts Pages and Widgets, published on 8 Apr 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
The Columns by BestWebSoft plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'id' shortcode attribute of the [print_clmns] shortcode in all versions up to and including 1.0.3. This is due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on the 'id' attribute. The shortcode receives the 'id' parameter via shortcode_atts() at line 596 and directly embeds it into HTML output at line 731 (in a div id attribute) and into inline CSS at lines 672-729 without any escaping or sanitization. While the SQL query uses %d to cast the value to an integer for database lookup, the original unsanitized string value of $id is still used in the HTML/CSS output. 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. The attack requires that at least one column exists in the plugin (created by an admin), as the SQL query must return results for the output branch to be reached.
Weakness: CWE-79
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-3618?
How do I fix CVE-2026-3618?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-3618 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Escape output for the context it lands in and set a strict Content Security Policy. Upgrading the affected component is the real fix. More about Cross-site scripting.
Is CVE-2026-3618 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-3618 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-5xc8-cv7x-vq3g.