CVE-2025-26587
Published: 03 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-26587 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 Keylogging (T1056.001); ranked at the 46.2th 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-15 (Information Output Filtering) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2025-26587 is an Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation vulnerability, classified as Reflected Cross-site Scripting (XSS) under CWE-79, affecting the nghorta sidebarTabs (sidebartabs) WordPress plugin. This issue impacts all versions from n/a through 3.1 inclusive. The vulnerability has 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 attack complexity, no required privileges, user interaction, and changed scope with low impacts across confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Remote attackers without authentication can exploit this Reflected XSS by crafting malicious input that reflects back to users, typically via tricking victims into interacting with a malicious link or payload on a site running the vulnerable plugin. Exploitation executes arbitrary JavaScript in the victim's browser context, enabling potential theft of session cookies, keystroke logging, or page manipulation, though impacts remain low per the CVSS metrics.
The Patchstack advisory (https://patchstack.com/database/Wordpress/Plugin/sidebartabs/vulnerability/wordpress-sidebartabs-plugin-3-1-reflected-cross-site-scripting-xss-vulnerability?_s_id=cve) documents this Reflected XSS vulnerability specifically in the WordPress sidebarTabs plugin up to version 3.1.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-5621
Vulnerability details
Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in nghorta sidebarTabs sidebartabs allows Reflected XSS.This issue affects sidebarTabs: from n/a through <= 3.1.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Reflected XSS enables arbitrary JS execution in browser, directly facilitating keylogging (T1056.001), browser 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
Requires timely identification, reporting, and correction of the specific XSS flaw in the sidebarTabs WordPress plugin, preventing exploitation through patching to versions beyond 3.1.
Mandates filtering and encoding of information outputs to neutralize untrusted input reflected during web page generation, directly blocking Reflected XSS script execution.
Enforces validation of web inputs to reject or sanitize malicious payloads before processing by the vulnerable sidebarTabs plugin, reducing the risk of reflected XSS.