# Hash Elements <= 1.5.5 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Total Portfolio Masonry Widget 'active_cat' Setting

- **ID:** WPSEC-2026-0803
- **Plugin:** Hash Elements (`hash-elements`), https://wordpress.org/plugins/hash-elements/
- **Affected versions:** from 1.0.4 before 1.5.7
- **Fixed in:** 1.5.7 (Update to 1.5.7 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 Low, affected versions Low (as of 2026-10-12)
- **Attack surface analysis:** https://attacksurface.wpsec.com/plugin/hash-elements
- **Fix released:** 2026-10-11
- **Published:** 2026-10-12
- **URL:** https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-0803/

## Description

The Hash Elements plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'active_cat' (Active Category) setting of the Total Portfolio Masonry widget in versions 1.0.4 to 1.5.5, due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. The value is placed into the data-active attribute of the widget's category filter list without escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above who can edit content with Elementor, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

## References

- https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-0803/
- https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/hash-elements/tags/1.5.7/
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/hash-elements/

Source: WPSec, https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-0803/

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.