CVE-2025-23844
📋 TL;DR
A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the WordPress Custom Widget Classes plugin allows attackers to trick authenticated administrators into performing unintended actions. This affects WordPress sites using Custom Widget Classes plugin versions up to 1.1. Successful exploitation could lead to stored XSS attacks.
💻 Affected Systems
- WordPress Custom Widget Classes plugin
⚠️ Manual Verification Required
This CVE does not have specific version information in our database, so automatic vulnerability detection cannot determine if your system is affected.
Why? The CVE database entry doesn't specify which versions are vulnerable (no version ranges provided by the vendor/NVD).
🔒 Custom verification scripts are available for registered users. Sign up free to download automated test scripts.
- Review the CVE details at NVD
- Check vendor security advisories for your specific version
- Test if the vulnerability is exploitable in your environment
- Consider updating to the latest version as a precaution
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Attackers could inject malicious JavaScript that executes in visitors' browsers, potentially stealing session cookies, redirecting users to malicious sites, or performing actions on behalf of authenticated users.
Likely Case
Attackers create malicious pages that trick logged-in administrators into changing widget settings to inject malicious scripts, affecting all site visitors.
If Mitigated
With proper CSRF tokens and same-origin policies, the attack fails even if administrators visit malicious pages.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires social engineering to trick authenticated administrators into visiting malicious pages while logged into WordPress admin.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Version after 1.1
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins. 3. Find 'Custom Widget Classes' and click 'Update Now' if available. 4. If no update is available, deactivate and delete the plugin.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement CSRF Protection Manually
WordPressAdd nonce verification to plugin's admin form handling
Edit plugin files to add wp_nonce_field() and wp_verify_nonce() calls
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Deactivate the Custom Widget Classes plugin immediately
- Implement web application firewall rules to block CSRF attempts targeting the plugin endpoints
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin > Plugins > Installed Plugins for Custom Widget Classes version 1.1 or earlierCheck Version:
wp plugin list --name=custom-widget-classes --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Verify plugin version is higher than 1.1 or plugin is removed📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Multiple POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php or widget endpoints without referrer headers
- Unexpected widget configuration changes
Network Indicators:
- Cross-origin requests to WordPress admin endpoints
- Suspicious referrer headers in admin requests
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND (uri_path="/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" OR uri_path CONTAINS "widget") AND http_method="POST" AND NOT referrer CONTAINS own_domain