---
id: CVE-2026-19985
title: >-
  The Relevanssi – A Better Search plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to
  Reflected Cross-Site Scripting in versions up to, and including, 4.28.1 via
  the 's', 'post_types', and 'orderby' request parameters
summary: >-
  The Relevanssi – A Better Search plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to
  Reflected Cross-Site Scripting in versions up to, and including, 4.28.1 via
  the 's', 'post_types', and 'orderby' request parameters. This is due to
  insufficient input…
severity: medium
cvss: 6.1
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N'
cwe:
  - CWE-79
vendor: comesio
product: Relevanssi – A Better Search
affected:
  - relevanssi_a_better_search <= 4.28.1
published: '2026-09-11'
updated: '2026-09-11'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-11T15:17:00.737'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-19985'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.27.2/lib/debug.php#L27
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.27.2/lib/debug.php#L68
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.27.2/lib/search.php#L132
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.27.2/lib/search.php#L143
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.27.2/lib/search.php#L562
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.28.1/lib/debug.php#L27
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.28.1/lib/debug.php#L68
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.28.1/lib/search.php#L132
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.28.1/lib/search.php#L143
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/relevanssi/tags/4.28.1/lib/search.php#L562
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?sfp_email=&sfph_mail=&reponame=&new=3650355%40relevanssi%2Ftrunk&old=3529670%40relevanssi%2Ftrunk&sfp_email=&sfph_mail=
    label: security@wordfence.com
  - url: >-
      https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/d07fe28c-f76e-42b2-b894-be316004235a?source=cve
    label: security@wordfence.com
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-09-11T14:09:50.573564Z'
epss: 0.00261
epssPercentile: 0.15926
ingestedAt: '2026-09-11T16:45:47.859Z'
---

## Overview

The Relevanssi – A Better Search plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting in versions up to, and including, 4.28.1 via the 's', 'post_types', and 'orderby' request parameters. This is due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping in the relevanssi_debug_array() function in lib/debug.php, which dumps user-supplied query variables through print_r() inside a <pre> block without HTML escaping. The debug path is enabled by supplying the relevanssi_debug=on request parameter when the administrator has previously enabled the 'Debugging mode' setting; the gate itself is a configuration check with no capability, nonce, or logged-in check (the vendor explicitly suppresses nonce verification on that line). This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that execute if they can successfully trick a user into performing an action such as clicking on a specially crafted link.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.