CVE-2025-23621
Published: 24 January 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-23621 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 32.1th 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).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Flaw remediation directly addresses the reflected XSS vulnerability by requiring timely patching or removal of the vulnerable Causes Donation Plugin version <=1.0.01.
Information output filtering prevents reflected XSS by ensuring user inputs are properly encoded or sanitized before insertion into web pages.
Information input validation rejects or sanitizes malicious inputs that could be reflected as XSS payloads in the plugin's web page generation.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
The reflected XSS vulnerability in the public-facing WordPress plugin directly enables exploitation of public-facing applications (T1190), execution of arbitrary JavaScript in the victim's browser (T1059.007), and stealing of web session cookies (T1539).
NVD Description
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in algothemes Causes – Donation Plugin causes allows Reflected XSS.This issue affects Causes – Donation Plugin: from n/a through <= 1.0.01.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-23621 is an Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation vulnerability, classified as Reflected Cross-site Scripting (XSS) under CWE-79, in the Causes – Donation Plugin by algothemes for WordPress. The issue affects the plugin from its initial release (n/a) through version 1.0.01.
With 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), the vulnerability is exploitable over the network by unauthenticated attackers with low attack complexity, though it requires user interaction such as clicking a malicious link. Successful exploitation enables limited impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability within a changed scope, potentially allowing attackers to execute arbitrary scripts in the victim's browser, steal session cookies, or perform other client-side actions on behalf of the user.
The Patchstack advisory at https://patchstack.com/database/Wordpress/Plugin/causes/vulnerability/wordpress-causes-donation-plugin-1-0-01-reflected-cross-site-scripting-xss-vulnerability?_s_id=cve details the vulnerability in the Causes – Donation Plugin version 1.0.01.
Details
- CWE(s)