CVE-2025-23739
Published: 03 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-23739 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 in the top 42.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; 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-2025-23739 is a reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability stemming from improper neutralization of input during web page generation (CWE-79). It affects the WP Ultimate Reviews FREE WordPress plugin (wp-ultimate-reviews-free by jtibbles) in all versions up to and including 1.0.2.
The vulnerability has 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 it is exploitable remotely over the network with low attack complexity and no authentication privileges required, though user interaction is necessary. Attackers can craft malicious payloads delivered via reflected inputs, tricking authenticated or unauthenticated users into triggering the XSS—typically by visiting a maliciously crafted URL. This enables arbitrary JavaScript execution in the victim's browser context, with a changed scope allowing potential low-level impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, such as session hijacking or data exfiltration from the site.
Patchstack's advisory (https://patchstack.com/database/Wordpress/Plugin/wp-ultimate-reviews-free/vulnerability/wordpress-wp-ultimate-reviews-free-plugin-1-0-2-reflected-cross-site-scripting-xss-vulnerability?_s_id=cve) details the reflected XSS issue in WP Ultimate Reviews FREE version 1.0.2, recommending that site administrators update to a patched version of the plugin if available or disable it until remediation.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-5681
Vulnerability details
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in jtibbles WP Ultimate Reviews FREE wp-ultimate-reviews-free allows Reflected XSS.This issue affects WP Ultimate Reviews FREE: from n/a through <= 1.0.2.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Reflected XSS in public-facing WordPress plugin directly enables exploitation of web applications (T1190) and arbitrary JavaScript execution in browser context (T1059.007) for impacts like session hijacking.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Information Output Filtering directly prevents reflected XSS by encoding or sanitizing user inputs before rendering them in web pages, addressing the improper neutralization core to this CVE.
Information Input Validation ensures malicious payloads in reflected inputs are rejected or sanitized before processing, mitigating the CWE-79 vulnerability in the WordPress plugin.
Flaw Remediation requires timely patching or removal of the vulnerable WP Ultimate Reviews FREE plugin (up to v1.0.2), directly eliminating the exploitable XSS flaw as recommended by advisories.