CVE-2019-20042

In wp-includes/formatting.php in WordPress 3.7 to 5.3.0, the function wp_targeted_link_rel() can be used in a particular way to result in a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability. This has been patched in WordPress 5.3.1, along with all the previous WordPress versions from 3.7 to 5.3 via a minor release.

Published: 2019-12-27 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-20042 is rated Moderate Risk (51.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.76%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-20042

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 5.05% 2.76% -2.29%
2 2026-03-04 18.71% 5.05% -13.66%
3 2026-03-01 — 18.71% —

Full EPSS history (44 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-20042

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.1 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:L)
Some sensitive info could get out, but not a total data dump.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 2.7 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2019-20042

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-20042

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2019-20042 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (wordpress), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2019-20042
ubuntu medium CVE-2019-20042 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (wordpress), 18 status rows across 18 suites (bionic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 12, ignored 2, needs-triage 2, DNE 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-20042

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-20042

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
wordpress wordpress >= 3.7, < 5.3.1 cpe:2.3:a:wordpress:wordpress:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-20042

URL Tags
https://blog.ripstech.com/filter/vulnerabilities/ Not Applicable
https://core.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/46894/trunk Patch
https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/commit/1f7f3f1f59567e2504f0fbebd51ccf004b3ccb1d Patch
https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/security/advisories/GHSA-xvg2-m2f4-83m7 Third Party Advisory
https://hackerone.com/reports/509930 Third Party Advisory
https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2020/Jan/8 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://wordpress.org/news/2019/12/wordpress-5-3-1-security-and-maintenance-release/ Release Notes Vendor Advisory
https://wpvulndb.com/vulnerabilities/9975 Release Notes Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4599 Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4677 Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence