CVE-2025-23845
Published: 17 February 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-23845 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 Browser Session Hijacking (T1185); ranked at the 22.6th 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-2025-23845 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 ERA404 ImageMeta WordPress plugin (imagemeta), impacting all versions from an unspecified initial release through 1.1.2. The issue was published on 2025-02-17.
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 network accessibility, low attack complexity, no privileges required, and user interaction needed for exploitation. Attackers can deliver malicious payloads via reflected input on web pages generated by the plugin, potentially tricking authenticated users into executing scripts in their browsers. With changed scope, exploitation may impact other users or application components, achieving low confidentiality, integrity, and availability effects such as session hijacking or data exfiltration.
The Patchstack advisory details this Reflected XSS in the WordPress ImageMeta plugin up to version 1.1.2 and recommends mitigation through updating to a patched release. Further details are available at https://patchstack.com/database/Wordpress/Plugin/imagemeta/vulnerability/wordpress-imagemeta-plugin-1-1-2-reflected-cross-site-scripting-xss-vulnerability?_s_id=cve.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-4867
Vulnerability details
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in ERA404 ImageMeta imagemeta allows Reflected XSS.This issue affects ImageMeta: from n/a through <= 1.1.2.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Reflected XSS directly enables browser script execution for session hijacking (T1185) and stealing web session cookies (T1539), as described in the CVE impacts.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly mitigates the CVE by requiring timely flaw remediation through patching the reflected XSS vulnerability in the ImageMeta plugin up to version 1.1.2.
Prevents reflected XSS exploitation by enforcing validation of untrusted inputs to block malicious script payloads reflected in web page generation.
Addresses improper neutralization during web page generation by filtering and encoding outputs to prevent execution of reflected XSS payloads in user browsers.