CVE-2025-26581
Published: 26 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-26581 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 29.2th 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).
Threat & Defense at a Glance
Threat & Defense Details
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI
Directly mitigates reflected XSS by requiring filtering of web page outputs to neutralize malicious input before execution in victims' browsers.
Prevents injection of malicious JavaScript payloads by validating all user inputs to the Picture Gallery plugin before processing or reflection.
Addresses the specific flaw in Picture Gallery versions <=1.6.3 through timely patching and flaw remediation to eliminate the improper neutralization vulnerability.
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Reflected XSS in public-facing WordPress plugin directly enables exploitation of public-facing applications (T1190) via crafted malicious URLs and facilitates theft of web session cookies through injected JavaScript execution (T1539).
NVD Description
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in videowhisper Picture Gallery picture-gallery allows Reflected XSS.This issue affects Picture Gallery: from n/a through <= 1.6.3.
Deeper analysisAI
CVE-2025-26581 is an Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation vulnerability, classified as Reflected Cross-site Scripting (XSS) under CWE-79, in the videowhisper Picture Gallery WordPress plugin (picture-gallery). It affects all versions from an unspecified starting point through 1.6.3. 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 high severity due to network accessibility, low complexity, no required privileges, user interaction, and changed scope.
An unauthenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability remotely by crafting malicious input that is reflected and executed as JavaScript in a victim's browser when they interact with a specially prepared web page or link. Exploitation requires user interaction, such as clicking a malicious URL, but achieves low impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability within a changed scope, potentially enabling session hijacking, data theft, or further site compromise in the victim's context.
Mitigation details are available in the Patchstack advisory at https://patchstack.com/database/Wordpress/Plugin/picture-gallery/vulnerability/wordpress-picture-gallery-plugin-1-5-23-csrf-to-stored-xss-vulnerability?_s_id=cve. Security practitioners should update to a patched version beyond 1.6.3 if available and apply standard XSS defenses like input sanitization and Content Security Policy.
Details
- CWE(s)