CVE-2019-20042: Debian Linux

Medium severity, CVSS 6.1. EPSS: 2.8% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

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.

Affected products

• Debian Debian Linux: version 9.0 only; version 10.0 only
• WordPress WordPress: from 3.7, before 5.3.1 (fixed in 5.3.1)

Published 2019-12-27. Last modified 2026-06-17.