---
id: "CVE-2026-9239"
kind: "vulnerability"
aliases: ["CVE-2026-9239"]
title: "Meow Gallery WordPress plugin: stored XSS via image alt text"
severity: "medium"
cvss: 6.4
epss: null
exploited: false
status: "open"
category: "package"
products: []
ecosystems: []
tags: ["meow-gallery", "package", "wordpress"]
not_affected_if: ["newer-version", "no-untrusted-authors", "plugin-not-installed"]
published_at: "2026-10-30T18:18:21+00:00"
first_seen_at: "2026-10-30T18:55:30+00:00"
updated_at: "2026-10-30T18:57:01+00:00"
sources: [{"source": "nvd", "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-9239", "first_seen_at": "2026-10-30T18:55:30+00:00"}]
---

# Meow Gallery WordPress plugin: stored XSS via image alt text

The Meow Gallery WordPress plugin up to and including 5.5.1 does not sanitize attachment alt text rendered in gallery links. An author-level user can inject script that runs in the browser of anyone who opens the affected page.

_Summary, check and fix written by a model from the sources; labelled as such._

## How to check

- Check the installed Meow Gallery plugin version in the WordPress admin Plugins screen; versions up to and including `5.5.1` are affected.
- Look for galleries whose items are rendered as links (link_href set) that use attachment alt text containing quote characters.

## Fix

- Move the Meow Gallery plugin to a version later than `5.5.1`; the exact fixed version is unknown from the sources.

## Timeline

- 2026-10-30T18:55:30+00:00 nvd https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-9239

## From the sources

The Meow Gallery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Attachment Alt Text (aria-label attribute) in all versions up to, and including, 5.5.1 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with author-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. The vulnerable code path is only reachable when a gallery item is rendered as a link (i.e., link_href is non-empty), and exploitation relies on the fact that WordPress's sanitize_text_field() strips angle-bracketed tags but preserves double quotes, allowing an attacker to break out of the aria-label attribute context and inject event-handler attributes such as onclick.

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