CVE-2019-20041

CRITICALNVD 9.89.8—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 9.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: CRITICAL) published 2022-05-24. NVD baseline CVSS 9.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
9.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 4.5%CVSS: 9.8Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

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: substring.

CVSS v3
9.8
EG Score
9.8CRITICALmedium confidence
EG Risk
50
EG Risk 50/100CISA SSVC

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity98% × 45%
Exploitation5% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
CISA SSVC: Track at low or medium mission impact; Track* or Attend at high (mission-essential systems).
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.
EPSS PROB
4.5%
EPSS %ILE
91st
KEV
Not listed

CISA SSVCTrack at low or medium mission impact; Track* or Attend at high (mission-essential systems).

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.

Exploitation none (no KEV listing, exploit record or EPSS ≥ 50%) · Automatable unknown (not published for this CVE) · Technical impact total (CVSS ≥ 9.0). Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it: high means the affected system is essential to your organisation's mission, or its compromise could cause irreversible harm to people. CISA's decision table

Published

December 27, 2019

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

Advisory Details (6)

Auto-updated Oct 5, 2026
Patch available. Sources: github_commit.
generic

WordPress 5.3.1 Security and Maintenance Release – WordPress News

https://wordpress.org/news/2019/12/wordpress-5-3-1-security-and-maintenance-release/
generic

Bugtraq: [SECURITY] [DSA 4599-1] wordpress security update

https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2020/Jan/8
genericMentions a patch (unverified)

[SECURITY] [DLA 2067-1] wordpress security update

https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/01/msg00010.html
github_commit

commit b1975463dd99 (WordPress/wordpress-develop)

Fix landed in WordPress/wordpress-develop commit b1975463dd99 — awaiting tagged release

https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/commit/b1975463dd995da19bb40d3fa0786498717e3c53
generic

[SECURITY] [DSA 4677-1] wordpress security update

https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4677
generic

[SECURITY] [DSA 4599-1] wordpress security update

https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4599

Affected Packages

(6 across 6 ecosystems)
Debian:10(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
wordpress5.0.4+dfsg1-1
  • every version up to 5.0.4+dfsg1-1+deb10u1: fixed in 5.0.4+dfsg1-1+deb10u1
—
Debian:11(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
wordpress—
  • every version up to 5.3.2+dfsg1-1: fixed in 5.3.2+dfsg1-1
—
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
wordpress—
  • every version up to 5.3.2+dfsg1-1: fixed in 5.3.2+dfsg1-1
—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
wordpress—
  • every version up to 5.3.2+dfsg1-1: fixed in 5.3.2+dfsg1-1
—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
wordpress—
  • every version up to 5.3.2+dfsg1-1: fixed in 5.3.2+dfsg1-1
—
Debian:8(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
wordpress4.1+dfsg-1 ... 4.1.28+dfsg-0+deb8u1 (24 versions)
  • every version up to 4.1.29+dfsg-0+deb8u1: fixed in 4.1.29+dfsg-0+deb8u1
—

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 5× in last 7d / 26× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 157 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-10-05 17:39 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-10-04 23:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-10-03 14:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-09-30 14:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-09-30 10:16 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-09-28 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
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  8. 2026-09-27 12:20 UTCOSV refresh
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  24. 2026-09-07 21:51 UTCOSV refresh
  25. 2026-09-07 15:57 UTCEPSS rescore
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  1. 2026-09-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
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  14. 2026-08-21 07:44 UTCOSV refresh
  15. 2026-08-20 22:51 UTCEPSS rescore
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  25. 2026-08-06 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-08-05 21:24 UTCOSV refresh
  27. 2026-08-05 19:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-08-04 15:05 UTCEPSS rescore
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  39. 2026-07-23 01:43 UTCEG score recompute
  40. 2026-07-22 22:23 UTCEG score recompute
  41. 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
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  44. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-07-19 22:48 UTCOSV refresh
  47. 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
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  49. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
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  70. 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  71. 2026-07-02 13:16 UTCOSV refresh
  72. 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  73. 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  74. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-06-28 14:04 UTCEPSS rescore

Related CVEs(same product + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2019-20041?
CVE-2019-20041 is a critical vulnerability published on December 27, 2019. wpksesbad_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: substring.
When was CVE-2019-20041 disclosed?
CVE-2019-20041 was first published on December 27, 2019, with the most recent update on November 21, 2024. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2019-20041 actively exploited?
CVE-2019-20041 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 4.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (91st percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2019-20041?
CVE-2019-20041 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2019-20041?
A fix for CVE-2019-20041 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory.

Dependency Blast Radius

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