CVE-2025-14796: My Album Gallery WordPress XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-14796 Overview

The My Album Gallery plugin for WordPress contains a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in all versions up to and including 1.0.4. The vulnerability exists due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on the attachment->title attribute when handling image titles. This allows authenticated attackers with Author-level access and above to inject arbitrary web scripts into pages that execute whenever a user accesses the affected page.

Critical Impact

Authenticated attackers can inject persistent malicious scripts through image titles, potentially compromising site visitors, stealing session cookies, redirecting users to malicious sites, or performing actions on behalf of authenticated administrators.

Affected Products

• My Album Gallery plugin for WordPress version 1.0.4 and earlier
• WordPress installations using the vulnerable plugin versions
• Sites permitting Author-level or higher user roles to upload images

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-01-07 - CVE-2025-14796 published to NVD
• 2026-01-08 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-14796

Vulnerability Analysis

This Stored Cross-Site Scripting vulnerability stems from improper handling of user-supplied input in the image title functionality of the My Album Gallery plugin. When an authenticated user with Author-level permissions or higher creates or modifies an image gallery entry, the attachment->title attribute is not properly sanitized before being stored in the database, nor is it adequately escaped when rendered on the front-end.

The vulnerability is classified under CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation), a common weakness category for XSS vulnerabilities. The flaw enables attackers to store malicious JavaScript code that persists in the database and executes in the browsers of any user who views the affected gallery page.

The scope is changed in this vulnerability, meaning the impact extends beyond the vulnerable component itself—scripts injected through the plugin can affect the broader WordPress context, potentially compromising confidentiality and integrity of user sessions and site data.

Root Cause

The root cause is insufficient input sanitization and output escaping in the plugin's handling of the attachment->title attribute. Specifically, the vulnerability exists in two identified code locations:

• The shortcode controller at class-mygallery-shortcode.php (line 143)
• The single gallery template at mygallery-single.php (line 92)

When image titles containing malicious scripts are saved, the plugin fails to sanitize the input. Subsequently, when these titles are rendered on gallery pages, the output is not properly escaped, allowing the injected scripts to execute in the user's browser context.

Attack Vector

The attack is network-based and requires the attacker to have authenticated access to the WordPress site with at least Author-level privileges. The attack flow involves:

1. An authenticated attacker with Author role logs into the WordPress admin panel
2. The attacker creates or edits an image in the My Album Gallery plugin
3. In the image title field, the attacker injects malicious JavaScript code (e.g., script tags or event handlers)
4. The malicious payload is stored in the database without proper sanitization
5. When any user (including administrators) views the gallery page containing the malicious image title, the script executes in their browser
6. The script can steal session cookies, perform actions as the victim, or redirect to phishing sites

The vulnerability does not require user interaction beyond viewing the affected page, making it particularly effective for targeting site administrators or other privileged users.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-14796

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual JavaScript code or HTML tags present in image title fields within the My Album Gallery database tables
• Unexpected script execution or browser behavior when viewing gallery pages
• Audit logs showing Author-level users modifying image titles with suspicious content
• Reports from users experiencing redirects or unexpected popups when viewing gallery content

Detection Strategies

• Review WordPress database entries for gallery image titles containing suspicious HTML or JavaScript code
• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect XSS patterns in form submissions
• Monitor server access logs for unusual patterns of gallery page access following title modifications
• Use browser-based security tools to identify script injection on gallery pages

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable WordPress audit logging to track all modifications to gallery content
• Configure real-time alerting for database changes to gallery-related tables
• Deploy Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to mitigate script execution from unauthorized sources
• Regularly scan WordPress installations for known vulnerabilities using security plugins

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-14796

Immediate Actions Required

• Update the My Album Gallery plugin to a patched version when available
• Review and audit all existing image titles in the plugin for malicious content
• Temporarily restrict Author-level access if immediate patching is not possible
• Consider disabling the plugin until a security patch is released

Patch Information

The vulnerability affects My Album Gallery plugin versions up to and including 1.0.4. Site administrators should monitor the WordPress plugin repository and the Wordfence Vulnerability Report for patch availability. Technical details about the vulnerable code can be reviewed in the plugin shortcode controller and gallery template file.

Workarounds

• Implement additional output escaping by adding custom filters to sanitize gallery title output
• Restrict plugin usage to Administrators only by modifying capability checks
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall with XSS filtering rules to block malicious payloads
• Use Content Security Policy headers to prevent inline script execution

# Add CSP headers to WordPress .htaccess as a temporary mitigation
# This helps prevent inline script execution
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
    Header set Content-Security-Policy "script-src 'self'; object-src 'none';"
</IfModule>