# Better Search <= 4.5.2 - Unauthenticated Sensitive Information Exposure via Attachment Search Results

- **ID:** WPSEC-2026-2246
- **Plugin:** Better Search – Relevant search results for WordPress (`better-search`), https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/
- **Affected versions:** all versions before 4.5.3
- **Fixed in:** 4.5.3 (Update to 4.5.3 or later.)
- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N)
- **Weakness:** CWE-200
- **Usage among sites WPSec scans:** plugin Low, affected versions Low (as of 2026-11-03)
- **Attack surface analysis:** https://attacksurface.wpsec.com/plugin/better-search
- **Fix released:** 2026-11-01
- **Published:** 2026-11-03
- **URL:** https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-2246/

## Description

The Better Search plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Sensitive Information Exposure via search results in all versions up to, and including, 4.5.2 due to missing checks on the visibility of an attachment's parent post, both in live queries and in results restored from the cache. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to discover attachments belonging to unpublished posts, posts of non-viewable post types, and password-protected posts when the 'Exclude password protected posts' option is enabled.

## References

- https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-2246/
- https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/better-search/tags/4.5.3/
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/

Source: WPSec, https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-2246/

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.