CVE-2025-13387 Overview
The Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer plugin for WordPress contains a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in all versions up to and including 1.5.17. The vulnerability exists due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping of the customer name field. This security flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts into pages that execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
With a CVSS score of 7.2 (HIGH) and a network-based attack vector requiring no authentication, this vulnerability poses a significant risk to WordPress sites running the affected plugin. The Stored XSS nature means malicious scripts persist in the database and can affect any user who views the compromised content.
Critical Impact
Unauthenticated attackers can inject persistent malicious scripts that execute in the context of authenticated users, potentially leading to session hijacking, credential theft, or administrative account compromise.
Affected Products
- Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer plugin versions up to and including 1.5.17
- WordPress installations with the vulnerable plugin installed
- WooCommerce stores using Kadence Email Designer for email customization
Discovery Timeline
- 2025-12-02 - CVE-2025-13387 published to NVD
- 2025-12-02 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2025-13387
Vulnerability Analysis
This vulnerability is classified as CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation (Cross-Site Scripting). The Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer plugin fails to properly sanitize and escape user-supplied input in the customer name field before rendering it in administrative interfaces and email preview pages.
The CVSS:3.1 vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N indicates:
- Attack Vector (AV:N): Exploitable remotely over the network
- Attack Complexity (AC:L): Low complexity required for exploitation
- Privileges Required (PR:N): No authentication needed
- User Interaction (UI:N): No user interaction required for the attack
- Scope (S:C): Changed - impacts resources beyond the vulnerable component
- Confidentiality Impact (C:L): Low confidentiality impact
- Integrity Impact (I:L): Low integrity impact
- Availability Impact (A:N): No availability impact
The EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) data shows a probability of 0.098% with a percentile ranking of 27.571, indicating a relatively low but non-negligible likelihood of exploitation in the wild.
Root Cause
The root cause of this vulnerability lies in the plugin's failure to implement proper input validation and output encoding for the customer name field. When WooCommerce orders are processed, customer names are stored and later displayed in email templates and preview interfaces without adequate sanitization. This allows attackers to submit orders with malicious JavaScript payloads embedded in the customer name field.
The vulnerability specifically affects the email designer preview functionality where customer data is rendered. Without proper HTML entity encoding or contextual output escaping, script tags and event handlers included in customer names are interpreted as executable code by the browser.
Attack Vector
An attacker can exploit this vulnerability through the following attack flow:
- The attacker places a WooCommerce order on a vulnerable site
- Instead of a legitimate customer name, the attacker includes malicious JavaScript code (e.g., script tags or event handlers)
- The malicious payload is stored in the WordPress database
- When an administrator or authorized user accesses the email designer interface to preview or customize email templates, the injected script executes
- The malicious script runs in the context of the victim's session, potentially allowing session hijacking, credential theft, or further administrative actions
The attack requires no authentication, making it particularly dangerous for e-commerce sites that accept public orders. The malicious payload persists until manually removed, affecting all users who view the compromised content.
Detection Methods for CVE-2025-13387
Indicators of Compromise
- Unusual JavaScript code patterns in WooCommerce order customer name fields
- Database entries containing <script> tags, onerror, onload, or other event handlers in customer data
- Suspicious network requests originating from administrative pages to external domains
- Unexpected redirects or pop-ups when viewing email designer previews
- Administrator session tokens appearing in server logs for external requests
Detection Strategies
Database Analysis:
Security teams should query the WordPress database to identify potentially malicious entries in customer name fields. Look for HTML tags, JavaScript event handlers, and encoded payloads in the wp_postmeta and related WooCommerce order tables.
Web Application Firewall (WAF) Rules:
Implement WAF rules to detect and block XSS payloads in form submissions, particularly in customer name fields during checkout. SentinelOne Singularity provides behavioral analysis that can identify suspicious script injection attempts and anomalous browser behavior indicative of XSS exploitation.
Log Monitoring:
Monitor WordPress and web server logs for unusual patterns such as:
- Orders with abnormally long customer names
- Customer names containing encoded characters or script-like patterns
- Administrative page access followed by unexpected external requests
Monitoring Recommendations
Organizations should implement continuous monitoring for XSS indicators across their WordPress infrastructure. SentinelOne's real-time behavioral AI engine can detect when browsers execute unexpected scripts or make unauthorized network connections, providing an additional layer of protection even before patches are applied.
Regular security audits of WooCommerce order data and plugin configurations should be conducted. Enable WordPress debug logging temporarily to capture any PHP warnings related to output escaping that might indicate exploitation attempts.
How to Mitigate CVE-2025-13387
Immediate Actions Required
- Update the Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer plugin to the latest patched version immediately
- Review existing WooCommerce orders for potentially malicious customer name entries
- Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to mitigate XSS impact
- Enable WordPress audit logging to track administrative access to email designer features
- Consider temporarily disabling email preview functionality until patching is complete
Patch Information
A security patch addressing this vulnerability has been released. The fix can be verified in the WordPress Plugin Repository changeset 3399955. Site administrators should update to a version newer than 1.5.17 through the WordPress admin dashboard or by downloading directly from the WordPress plugin repository.
For detailed patch information, refer to:
Workarounds
If immediate patching is not possible, implement the following temporary mitigations:
Content Security Policy Implementation:
Add strict CSP headers to prevent inline script execution and limit script sources to trusted domains only.
Input Sanitization at Database Level:
Administrators can manually sanitize existing customer data by removing or encoding potentially malicious content from customer name fields in the database.
Access Restriction:
Limit access to the WooCommerce Email Designer preview functionality to essential personnel only until the patch can be applied.
WAF Rules:
Deploy Web Application Firewall rules to block common XSS payloads in form submissions, particularly targeting the checkout and customer registration forms.
# WordPress wp-config.php - Enable security headers
# Add to your theme's functions.php or a security plugin configuration
# Example Apache .htaccess CSP header
# Header set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline';"
# To update the plugin via WP-CLI:
wp plugin update kadence-woocommerce-email-designer
# To verify current plugin version:
wp plugin list --name=kadence-woocommerce-email-designer --fields=name,version,update_version
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
