CVE-2025-53338
📋 TL;DR
A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the WordPress re.place plugin allows attackers to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users, potentially leading to stored cross-site scripting (XSS). This affects WordPress sites using the re.place plugin versions up to 0.2.1. Attackers could inject malicious scripts that execute when other users view affected pages.
💻 Affected Systems
- WordPress re.place 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 admin credentials, deface websites, redirect users to malicious sites, or perform administrative actions leading to complete site compromise.
Likely Case
Attackers trick authenticated users into performing unintended actions like changing settings, creating malicious content, or injecting scripts that affect other users viewing the site.
If Mitigated
With proper CSRF protections and content security policies, the attack surface is reduced, though the vulnerability still exists in the codebase.
🎯 Exploit Status
CSRF attacks are well-understood and relatively easy to exploit. The stored XSS component requires additional steps but follows predictable patterns.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 0.2.2 or later
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel. 2. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins. 3. Find 're.place' plugin. 4. Click 'Update Now' if update available. 5. If no update available, deactivate and delete the plugin, then install latest version from WordPress repository.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Implement CSRF Tokens
allAdd CSRF protection tokens to all forms and state-changing requests in the plugin
Content Security Policy
allImplement strict Content Security Policy headers to mitigate XSS impact
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Disable or remove the re.place plugin immediately
- Implement web application firewall rules to detect and block CSRF attempts
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin panel > Plugins > Installed Plugins for re.place plugin version. If version is 0.2.1 or earlier, you are vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin list --name=re.place --field=version (if WP-CLI installed)Verify Fix Applied:
After updating, verify the plugin version shows 0.2.2 or later in WordPress admin panel.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unusual POST requests to re.place plugin endpoints without referrer headers
- Multiple failed authentication attempts followed by successful CSRF requests
Network Indicators:
- Requests to re.place endpoints with suspicious parameters or payloads
- Traffic patterns showing users being redirected to external sites after visiting specific pages
SIEM Query:
source="wordpress.log" AND (plugin="re.place" OR uri="/wp-content/plugins/replace/") AND (method="POST" OR status>=400)