Medium severity · published Aug 25, 2026
CVE-2026-19801
BetterLinks <= 3.1.0 - Missing Authorization to Authenticated (Subscriber+) Arbitrary Short URL Creation via create_fbs_link AJAX Action
4.3
CVSS
0.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
The BetterLinks – Link Shortener, Link Cloaking, Redirects, Affiliate Link Manager & MCP plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass in all versions up to, and including, 3.1.0. This is due to the plugin not properly verifying that a user is authorized to perform an action. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to create arbitrary BetterLinks short URLs with attacker-controlled slugs and redirect destinations, enabling phishing and SEO abuse. Exploitation requires the Fluent Boards companion plugin to be installed and active (so that the FLUENT_BOARDS constant is defined), and is further facilitated by the betterlinks_admin_nonce nonce being emitted on every frontend page via wp_localize_script, making it accessible to any authenticated user.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
None
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.4% · higher than 34% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
BL
BetterLinks – Link Shortener, Link Cloaking, Redirects, Affiliate Link Manager & MCP · wpdevteam
through 3.1.0 · source: vendor
Affected product
BL
BetterLinks – Link Shortener, Link Cloaking, Redirects, Affiliate Link Manager & MCP
wpdevteam
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-19801
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-19801
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/betterlinks/tags/3.0.0/betterlinks.php#L254
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/betterlinks/tags/3.0.0/includes/Admin/Ajax.php#L180
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/betterlinks/tags/3.0.0/includes/Admin/Ajax.php#L99
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/betterlinks/tags/3.1.0/betterlinks.php#L254
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/betterlinks/tags/3.1.0/includes/Admin/Ajax.php#L180
plugins.trac.wordpress.org
https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/betterlinks/tags/3.1.0/includes/Admin/Ajax.php#L99
