CVE-2025-23658: Advanced Angular Contact Form XSS Flaw

CVE-2025-23658 Overview

CVE-2025-23658 is a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting the Advanced Angular Contact Form WordPress plugin developed by Tauhidul Alam. This vulnerability stems from improper neutralization of input during web page generation, allowing attackers to inject malicious scripts that execute in the context of a victim's browser session.

Critical Impact

Attackers can exploit this reflected XSS vulnerability to steal session cookies, redirect users to malicious sites, perform actions on behalf of authenticated users, or deliver additional payloads through crafted URLs targeting WordPress site visitors.

Affected Products

• Advanced Angular Contact Form WordPress Plugin version 1.1.0 and earlier
• WordPress installations using the advanced-angular-contact-form plugin
• All versions from initial release through version 1.1.0

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-02-14 - CVE-2025-23658 published to NVD
• 2026-04-23 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-23658

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation), commonly known as Cross-Site Scripting. The Advanced Angular Contact Form plugin fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input before reflecting it back in web page output. This allows an attacker to craft malicious URLs containing JavaScript payloads that execute when a victim clicks the link and visits the affected WordPress page.

Reflected XSS vulnerabilities require user interaction, as the victim must click a specially crafted link or visit a malicious page that redirects to the vulnerable endpoint. However, once triggered, the attacker's script executes with the same privileges as the victim's session, enabling theft of authentication tokens, session hijacking, or unauthorized actions within the WordPress installation.

Root Cause

The root cause lies in insufficient input validation and output encoding within the Advanced Angular Contact Form plugin. When user input is incorporated into the page response without proper sanitization, special characters like <, >, ", and ' are not escaped, allowing HTML and JavaScript injection. The plugin's Angular-based contact form implementation does not adequately filter malicious payloads before rendering content in the browser.

Attack Vector

The attack leverages the network-accessible nature of WordPress websites. An attacker crafts a malicious URL containing JavaScript code embedded in one or more request parameters. This URL is then distributed via phishing emails, social media, or other channels. When a victim clicks the link while authenticated to the target WordPress site, the injected script executes in their browser context.

The attack does not require authentication from the attacker (no privileges required), but does require user interaction (the victim must click the crafted link). The scope is changed, meaning the vulnerability can affect resources beyond the vulnerable component's security scope, potentially impacting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the user's session and data.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-23658

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual URL parameters containing encoded JavaScript or HTML tags in server access logs
• Error logs showing malformed input attempts targeting the Advanced Angular Contact Form plugin endpoints
• User reports of suspicious redirects or unexpected pop-ups when accessing contact form pages

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect common XSS patterns in query strings and POST data
• Monitor server logs for requests containing typical XSS payloads such as <script>, javascript:, onerror=, and event handlers
• Deploy browser-based Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to block inline script execution
• Use automated security scanners to identify reflected XSS vulnerabilities in WordPress plugin endpoints

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging for all requests to WordPress plugin endpoints
• Configure alerts for requests containing HTML/JavaScript injection patterns
• Regularly audit WordPress plugin installations for outdated or vulnerable versions
• Monitor for anomalous user session behavior that may indicate successful XSS exploitation

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-23658

Immediate Actions Required

• Remove or deactivate the Advanced Angular Contact Form plugin until a patched version is available
• Implement a Web Application Firewall with XSS protection rules
• Add Content Security Policy headers to prevent inline script execution
• Review server logs for evidence of exploitation attempts

Patch Information

As of the published vulnerability data, the Advanced Angular Contact Form plugin versions through 1.1.0 are affected. Site administrators should check the Patchstack vulnerability database for updates on available patches and remediation guidance from the plugin developer.

Workarounds

• Deactivate the Advanced Angular Contact Form plugin and use an alternative contact form solution with proper XSS protections
• Implement server-side input validation to strip or encode HTML special characters from all user input
• Deploy Content Security Policy headers with strict script-src directives to block inline JavaScript execution
• Use WordPress security plugins that provide real-time XSS attack blocking capabilities

# Example Apache .htaccess CSP header configuration
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
    Header set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline';"
    Header set X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block"
    Header set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
</IfModule>