Critical severity9.8NVD Advisory· Published Dec 27, 2019· Updated Jun 17, 2026

CVE-2019-20041

Description

wp_kses_bad_protocol in wp-includes/kses.php in WordPress before 5.3.1 mishandles the HTML5 colon named entity, allowing attackers to bypass input sanitization, as demonstrated by the javascript&colon; substring.

AI Insight

LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.

Affected products

WordPress/WordPress2 versions
cpe:2.3:a:wordpress:wordpress:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*+ 1 more
- cpe:2.3:a:wordpress:wordpress:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*range: <5.3.1
- (no CPE)range: <5.3.1
Package: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress
Debian/linux3 versions
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*+ 2 more
- cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
- cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
- cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
WordPress/WordPressdescription

Patches

Vulnerability mechanics

References

github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/commit/b1975463dd995da19bb40d3fa0786498717e3c53nvdPatch
lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/01/msg00010.htmlnvdMailing ListThird Party Advisory
seclists.org/bugtraq/2020/Jan/8nvdMailing ListThird Party Advisory
wordpress.org/news/2019/12/wordpress-5-3-1-security-and-maintenance-release/nvdRelease NotesVendor Advisory
www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4599nvdThird Party Advisory
www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4677nvdThird Party Advisory

News mentions

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cvss	0.637
epss	0.004
exploit	0.000
kev	0.000
patch	0.000
ransomware	0.000