CVE-2025-23842
Published: 16 January 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-23842 is a high-severity CSRF (CWE-352) 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 33.5th 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 SC-23 (Session Authenticity) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2025-23842 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability, corresponding to CWE-352, in the Nilesh Shiragave WordPress Gallery Plugin (wordpress-gallery-plugin). The issue affects the plugin from unknown initial versions through version 1.4 inclusive. It was published on 2025-01-16 and 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 network accessibility, low complexity, no required privileges, user interaction, and changed scope with low impacts to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Unauthenticated attackers can exploit this CSRF vulnerability by tricking authenticated users into performing unintended actions via malicious requests, such as those forged through external sites. Exploitation requires user interaction, like clicking a link or loading a page, but can occur over the network with low effort. Successful attacks may alter plugin state, potentially leading to impacts like low-level data modification or exposure, amplified by the changed scope.
The Patchstack advisory (https://patchstack.com/database/Wordpress/Plugin/wordpress-gallery-plugin/vulnerability/wordpress-wordpress-gallery-plugin-plugin-1-4-csrf-to-stored-xss-vulnerability?_s_id=cve) describes this as a CSRF-to-stored XSS vulnerability in version 1.4, providing details for practitioners to review for mitigation strategies, such as updating the plugin beyond version 1.4 or implementing CSRF protections.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-3470
Vulnerability details
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Nilesh Shiragave WordPress Gallery Plugin wordpress-gallery-plugin allows Cross Site Request Forgery.This issue affects WordPress Gallery Plugin: from n/a through <= 1.4.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
The CSRF-to-stored-XSS vulnerability in a public-facing WordPress plugin directly enables exploitation of public-facing applications (T1190). The stored XSS payload facilitates arbitrary JavaScript execution in victim browsers (T1059.007).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
SI-2 requires timely identification, reporting, and correction of flaws like CVE-2025-23842, directly mitigating the CSRF-to-stored XSS vulnerability through patching the WordPress Gallery Plugin beyond version 1.4.
SC-23 enforces session authenticity mechanisms such as anti-CSRF tokens, directly preventing unauthorized forged requests that exploit this CSRF vulnerability.
SI-10 validates information inputs to block malicious payloads that could lead to stored XSS when exploited via the CSRF vector in this vulnerability.