CVE-2025-26555
Published: 15 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-26555 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 25.0th 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-15 (Information Output Filtering) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
SI-15 requires output filtering to neutralize untrusted input before web page generation, directly preventing reflected XSS in the Debug-Bar-Extender plugin.
SI-10 enforces input validation at system entry points, mitigating malicious payloads targeting the improper neutralization vulnerability in CVE-2025-26555.
SI-2 mandates timely identification, reporting, and correction of flaws like the reflected XSS in Debug-Bar-Extender through patching and remediation processes.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
The reflected XSS vulnerability in the public-facing WordPress plugin directly enables remote exploitation of a web application weakness to execute arbitrary scripts in the victim's browser.
NVD Description
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in Thorsten Ott Debug-Bar-Extender debug-bar-extender allows Reflected XSS.This issue affects Debug-Bar-Extender: from n/a through <= 0.5.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-26555 is an Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation vulnerability, classified as Reflected Cross-site Scripting (XSS) under CWE-79, in the Debug-Bar-Extender WordPress plugin developed by Thorsten Ott. The issue affects all versions of Debug-Bar-Extender from n/a through 0.5 inclusive, allowing malicious input to be reflected in web page generation without proper neutralization.
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 required privileges, and user interaction such as clicking a malicious link. Remote attackers can exploit it to execute arbitrary scripts in the context of a victim's browser, achieving low impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability with a changed scope.
Mitigation details are available in the Patchstack advisory at https://patchstack.com/database/Wordpress/Plugin/debug-bar-extender/vulnerability/wordpress-debug-bar-extender-plugin-0-5-reflected-cross-site-scripting-xss-vulnerability?_s_id=cve, which covers the WordPress Debug-Bar-Extender plugin 0.5 reflected XSS vulnerability.
Details
- CWE(s)