# Shortcodes and extra features for Phlox theme <= 2.17.22 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Shortcode Attributes and Menu Widget Custom Content

- **ID:** WPSEC-2026-0645
- **Plugin:** Shortcodes and extra features for Phlox theme (`auxin-elements`), https://wordpress.org/plugins/auxin-elements/
- **Affected versions:** all versions before 2.17.24
- **Fixed in:** 2.17.24 (Update to 2.17.24 or later.)
- **Severity:** Medium 6.4 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N)
- **Weakness:** CWE-79
- **Usage among sites WPSec scans:** plugin Medium, affected versions Medium (as of 2026-10-08)
- **Attack surface analysis:** https://attacksurface.wpsec.com/plugin/auxin-elements
- **Fix released:** 2026-10-07
- **Published:** 2026-10-08
- **URL:** https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-0645/

## Description

The Shortcodes and extra features for Phlox theme plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting in all versions up to, and including, 2.17.22 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. The 'custom_el_id' and 'title' attributes of the accordion and tabs widget shortcodes, and the custom burger content of the Menu widget, were printed without escaping. 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.

## References

- https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-0645/
- https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/auxin-elements/tags/2.17.24/
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/auxin-elements/

Source: WPSec, https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-0645/

License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Free to use, share and adapt, also commercially, if you credit WPSec and link to this advisory.