CVE-2025-23883
Published: 03 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-23883 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 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-2025-23883 is an Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation vulnerability, classified as Reflected Cross-site Scripting (XSS) under CWE-79, affecting the Stray Random Quotes (stray-quotes) WordPress plugin developed by unalignedcoder. The issue impacts all versions of the plugin from its initial release through 1.9.9. Published on 2025-03-03, it 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 and scope change.
An unauthenticated attacker (PR:N) can exploit this vulnerability remotely (AV:N) with low complexity (AC:L) by tricking a victim—such as a site visitor or administrator—into performing an action like clicking a malicious link (UI:R). Successful exploitation triggers reflected XSS, executing arbitrary scripts in the victim's browser context with changed scope (S:C), enabling low-level impacts on confidentiality (C:L), integrity (I:L), and availability (A:L), such as session hijacking, data theft, or page manipulation.
Mitigation details are available in the Patchstack advisory at https://patchstack.com/database/Wordpress/Plugin/stray-quotes/vulnerability/wordpress-stray-random-quotes-plugin-1-9-9-reflected-cross-site-scripting-xss-vulnerability?_s_id=cve.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-5678
Vulnerability details
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in unalignedcoder Stray Random Quotes stray-quotes allows Reflected XSS.This issue affects Stray Random Quotes: from n/a through <= 1.9.9.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Reflected XSS enables arbitrary script execution in victim's browser, directly facilitating browser session hijacking (T1185) and stealing web session cookies (T1539) for impacts like session takeover and data theft.
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
SI-10 mandates validation of user inputs to the Stray Random Quotes WordPress plugin, directly preventing reflected XSS by neutralizing malicious scripts before web page generation.
SI-15 requires filtering and encoding of information outputs from the plugin, comprehensively blocking execution of injected scripts in victims' browsers during reflected XSS attacks.
SI-2 ensures timely identification, reporting, and patching of the specific flaw in Stray Random Quotes versions through 1.9.9, eliminating the root cause of this reflected XSS vulnerability.