CVE-2025-22582: Uptime Robot CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2025-22582 Overview

CVE-2025-22582 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Scott Nelle Uptime Robot plugin for WordPress. The flaw affects all plugin versions up to and including 0.1.3. An attacker who tricks an authenticated administrator into visiting a crafted page can submit unauthorized state-changing requests on the victim's behalf. The plugin's missing anti-CSRF controls allow the forged request to inject persistent JavaScript, resulting in Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). The issue is tracked under CWE-352 and was published to the NVD on January 7, 2025.

Critical Impact
A successful attack chains CSRF with Stored XSS, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary JavaScript in administrator browsers, hijack sessions, and pivot to full site takeover.

Affected Products

Scott Nelle Uptime Robot WordPress plugin (uptime-robot)
All versions from initial release through 0.1.3
WordPress sites with the affected plugin installed and activated

Discovery Timeline

2025-01-07 - CVE-2025-22582 published to NVD
2026-04-23 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-22582

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability stems from missing CSRF protection on plugin endpoints that accept and persist user-controlled input. WordPress provides nonce-based request verification through wp_nonce_field() and check_admin_referer(), but the affected plugin code paths do not validate a nonce or origin before processing administrative actions.

Because the same endpoints also fail to sanitize or encode user input before storage and rendering, an attacker can inject JavaScript that persists in the database. The stored payload executes when an administrator later loads the affected admin page. This effectively converts a client-side trickery attack into server-side persistence with code execution in privileged browser contexts.

The attack requires user interaction (UI:R) because the victim must visit a malicious page while authenticated. However, the scope changes (S:C) because injected script runs in the WordPress admin origin, crossing the trust boundary between the attacker's site and the target application.

Root Cause

The root cause is the absence of CSRF tokens on plugin settings handlers combined with inadequate input sanitization on stored fields. Standard WordPress hardening functions such as wp_verify_nonce(), sanitize_text_field(), and esc_attr() are not consistently applied, leaving the plugin vulnerable to forged requests and persistent script injection.

Attack Vector

The vulnerability is exploitable over the network with low complexity and no privileges required from the attacker. An attacker hosts a malicious page containing an auto-submitting form or fetch request targeting the vulnerable plugin endpoint. When an authenticated WordPress administrator visits that page, the browser submits the forged request along with the administrator's session cookies. The plugin accepts the request, stores the malicious payload, and serves it back to administrators on subsequent page loads, triggering Stored XSS.

No verified public exploit code is available at this time. Refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for additional technical context.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-22582

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected <script> tags, event handlers, or javascript: URIs stored within Uptime Robot plugin settings in the wp_options table
Administrator sessions exhibiting unauthorized actions such as new user creation, plugin installation, or option changes immediately after browsing external sites
HTTP referer headers from unknown third-party domains preceding POST requests to plugin admin endpoints

Detection Strategies

Audit the wp_options table for plugin configuration values containing HTML or JavaScript syntax that should not appear in monitoring URL fields
Review web server access logs for POST requests to plugin admin handlers lacking valid WordPress nonces in the query string or body
Inspect outbound requests from administrator browsers for beacons to attacker-controlled domains following admin panel visits

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable WordPress activity logging to capture configuration changes, user creation events, and plugin modifications
Monitor for newly added administrator accounts or modified user roles correlated with administrator workstation activity
Deploy a Content Security Policy (CSP) and alert on CSP violation reports originating from the WordPress admin interface

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-22582

Immediate Actions Required

Deactivate the Uptime Robot plugin on all WordPress instances running version 0.1.3 or earlier until a vendor fix is available
Force-rotate administrator passwords and invalidate active sessions to neutralize any tokens captured through prior exploitation
Audit the plugin's stored settings and remove any entries containing unexpected script content or HTML

Patch Information

At the time of NVD publication, no patched version above 0.1.3 is referenced in the advisory. Site operators should monitor the Patchstack Vulnerability Report and the plugin's WordPress.org listing for an updated release. Until a fix ships, removal of the plugin is the only complete mitigation.

Workarounds

Remove the Uptime Robot plugin entirely and substitute an actively maintained uptime monitoring solution
Restrict WordPress admin access using IP allowlists or VPN gating to limit exposure to CSRF entry points
Require administrators to log out of WordPress before browsing untrusted sites, and enforce browser isolation for privileged accounts
Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that blocks POST requests to plugin admin endpoints lacking valid _wpnonce parameters

bash

# Locate and disable the vulnerable plugin via WP-CLI
wp plugin list --name=uptime-robot --fields=name,version,status
wp plugin deactivate uptime-robot
wp plugin delete uptime-robot

# Search the options table for residual injected payloads
wp db query "SELECT option_name, option_value FROM wp_options WHERE option_value LIKE '%<script%' OR option_value LIKE '%onerror=%';"