CVE-2025-23565

High

Published: 03 March 2025

Published

03 March 2025

Modified

23 April 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score v3.1 7.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L

EPSS Score 0.0023 46.2th percentile

Risk Priority 14 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-23565 is a high-severity Cross-site Scripting (CWE-79) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 7.1 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 46.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-15 (Information Output Filtering).

Deeper analysis

CVE-2025-23565 is an Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation vulnerability, enabling Reflected Cross-site Scripting (XSS) as classified under CWE-79. It affects the Wibstats WordPress plugin (wibstats-statistics-for-wordpress-mu) by Chris Taylor, impacting all versions from n/a through 0.5.5 inclusive. The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L), indicating high severity due to its network accessibility and scope change.

Remote attackers require no privileges and can exploit it over the network with low attack complexity, though user interaction is needed, such as a victim clicking a malicious link or visiting a crafted page. Exploitation allows script execution in the victim's browser context, potentially leading to low-level impacts on confidentiality (e.g., session theft), integrity (e.g., data tampering), and availability, with the attack scope expanding beyond the vulnerable component.

The Patchstack advisory provides details on this vulnerability, including mitigation guidance, accessible at https://patchstack.com/database/Wordpress/Plugin/wibstats-statistics-for-wordpress-mu/vulnerability/wordpress-wibstats-plugin-0-5-5-reflected-cross-site-scripting-xss-vulnerability?_s_id=cve.

EU & UK References

🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-5714

Vulnerability details

Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in Chris Taylor Wibstats wibstats-statistics-for-wordpress-mu allows Reflected XSS.This issue affects Wibstats: from n/a through <= 0.5.5.

CWE(s): CWE-79

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.

attack.mitre.org →

T1059.007 JavaScript Execution

Adversaries may abuse various implementations of JavaScript for execution.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

The reflected XSS vulnerability in the public-facing WordPress plugin directly enables exploitation of the web application (T1190) to execute arbitrary JavaScript in the victim's browser context (T1059.007).

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0