CVE-2021-42360 json
Starter Templates — Elementor, Gutenberg & Beaver Builder Templates <= 2.7.0 Authenticated Block Import to Stored XSS
published 2021-11-17 4 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2021-29331
- cvss
- 7.6
- version 3.1, CNA
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.6%
- EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 49%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
On sites that also had the Elementor plugin for WordPress installed, it was possible for users with the edit_posts capability, which includes Contributor-level users, to import blocks onto any page using the astra-page-elementor-batch-process AJAX action. An attacker could craft and host a block containing malicious JavaScript on a server they controlled, and then use it to overwrite any post or page by sending an AJAX request with the action set to astra-page-elementor-batch-process and the url parameter pointed to their remotely-hosted malicious block, as well as an id parameter containing the post or page to overwrite. Any post or page that had been built with Elementor, including published pages, could be overwritten by the imported block, and the malicious JavaScript in the imported block would then be executed in the browser of any visitors to that page.
CISA SSVC
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- partial
- Assessed
- 20 mo ago
Exploit prediction
0.60% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 49% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).
Exploits and checks
- wordfence.com https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2021/11/over-1-million-sites-impacted-by-vulnerability-in-starter-templates-plugin/ referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | 3.1 | 7.6 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:L |
| NVD | 3.1 | 5.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N |
| NVD | 2.0 | 3.5 | AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:N |
Affected products
- BrainStormForce Starter Templates — Elementor, Gutenberg & Beaver Builder Templates
Classification
References
-
wordfence.com
/blog/2021/11/over-1-million-sites-impacted-by-vulnerability-in-starter-templates-plugin/
exploit, third-party-advisory
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2021-42360
- NVD CVE-2021-42360
Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.