CVE-2025-25154
📋 TL;DR
A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the WordPress Custom Comment Notifications plugin allows attackers to trick authenticated administrators into performing actions that lead to stored cross-site scripting (XSS). This affects WordPress sites using the plugin versions up to 1.0.8. Attackers can inject malicious scripts that execute when other users view affected pages.
💻 Affected Systems
- WordPress Custom Comment Notifications 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 persistent malicious scripts that steal administrator credentials, redirect users to malicious sites, or deface the website for all visitors.
Likely Case
Attackers trick administrators into unknowingly adding malicious JavaScript to comment notification settings, which then executes in victims' browsers when viewing those pages.
If Mitigated
With proper CSRF protections and content security policies, the attack would fail or have limited impact.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires social engineering to trick an authenticated administrator into clicking a malicious link while logged in.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Version after 1.0.8
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins. 3. Find 'Custom Comment Notifications'. 4. Click 'Update Now' if available. 5. Alternatively, download latest version from WordPress repository and replace plugin files.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable plugin temporarily
WordPressDeactivate the vulnerable plugin until patched
wp plugin deactivate custom-comment-notifications
Implement CSRF tokens
WordPressAdd nonce verification to plugin forms if custom patching
Add wp_nonce_field() and wp_verify_nonce() to plugin forms
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Remove plugin entirely if not essential
- Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to restrict script execution
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin > Plugins > Custom Comment Notifications for version number. If version is 1.0.8 or earlier, you are vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin get custom-comment-notifications --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
After update, verify plugin version shows higher than 1.0.8 in WordPress admin plugins list.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual POST requests to comment notification settings pages
- Administrator actions from unexpected IP addresses or referrers
Network Indicators:
- Malicious JavaScript payloads in HTTP POST data to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php or plugin endpoints
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND (uri_path="/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" OR uri_path CONTAINS "custom-comment-notifications") AND http_method="POST" AND (user_agent CONTAINS "malicious" OR referrer CONTAINS "suspicious-domain")