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Blackhole for Bad Bots vulnerabilities
Blackhole for Bad Bots has 2 known vulnerabilities in this database. The most recent published record is dated 26 Mar 2026.
- Known vulnerabilities
- 2
- Active installs
- 30,000+
- Latest version
- 3.8.4
- Last updated
- 21 Aug 2026
- Most recent
- 26 Mar 2026
Find it in your WordPress dashboard under Plugins. Severity is based on the CVSS score published with the CVE where one is available.
| Vulnerability | Severity | Affected | Fix | Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cross-site scripting (XSS) CVE-2026-4329 | High 7.2 | Up to 3.8 | Fixed in a later version (latest 3.8.4) | 26 Mar 2026 |
| Broken access control CVE-2022-1165 | Critical 9.1 | Before 3.3.2 | Fixed in 3.3.2 | 4 Apr 2022 |
Read the published descriptions
- CVE-2026-4329, 26 Mar 2026
- The Blackhole for Bad Bots plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the User-Agent HTTP header in all versions up to and including 3.8. This is due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. The plugin uses sanitize_text_field() when capturing bot data (which strips HTML tags but does not escape HTML entities like double quotes), then stores the data via update_option(). When an administrator views the Bad Bots log page, the stored data is output directly into HTML input value attributes (lines 75-83) without esc_attr() and into HTML span content without esc_html(). This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts that execute when an administrator views the Blackhole Bad Bots admin page. CVE record
- CVE-2022-1165, 4 Apr 2022
- The Blackhole for Bad Bots WordPress plugin before 3.3.2 uses headers such as CF-CONNECTING-IP, CLIENT-IP etc to determine the IP address of requests hitting the blackhole URL, which allows them to be spoofed. This could result in blocking arbitrary IP addresses, such as legitimate/good search engine crawlers / bots. This could also be abused by competitors to cause damage related to visibility in search engines, can be used to bypass arbitrary blocks caused by this plugin, block any visitor or even the administrator and even more. CVE record
What to do if you run Blackhole for Bad Bots
If you run Blackhole for Bad Bots, open WordPress and check the installed version in Plugins. Compare it with the affected versions in the vulnerability record. If a fixed version is available, take a current backup and update to that version or the latest supported release.
If no fixed version exists, consider disabling and removing the plugin or replacing it with a maintained alternative. After dealing with the affected software, check administrator users, unexpected file changes, redirects, unfamiliar pages and security logs for signs that the site may already have been altered.
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