# Ajax Search Lite <= 4.14.5 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Forged Search Instance Settings

- **ID:** WPSEC-2026-0995
- **Plugin:** Ajax Search Lite – Live Search & Filter (`ajax-search-lite`), https://wordpress.org/plugins/ajax-search-lite/
- **Affected versions:** all versions before 4.14.6
- **Fixed in:** 4.14.6 (Update to 4.14.6 or later.)
- **Severity:** Medium 5.4 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N)
- **Weakness:** CWE-79
- **Usage among sites WPSec scans:** plugin High, affected versions High (as of 2026-10-15)
- **Attack surface analysis:** https://attacksurface.wpsec.com/plugin/ajax-search-lite
- **Fix released:** 2026-10-14
- **Published:** 2026-10-15
- **URL:** https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-0995/

## Description

The Ajax Search Lite plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting in all versions up to, and including, 4.14.5, due to the front-end script reading search instance settings from every '.asl_init_data' element on the page, so a later element overrides the real one, and navigating to the configured home or redirect URL without checking its scheme. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers with contributor-level access and above to place an element with forged settings in a post, so that a javascript: URL executes arbitrary web scripts when a user searches with the site's search bar on that page. The search bar must precede the post content.

## References

- https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-0995/
- https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/ajax-search-lite/tags/4.14.6/
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/ajax-search-lite/

Source: WPSec, https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-0995/

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.