CVE-2025-24001 Overview
CVE-2025-24001 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting the PPO Call To Actions WordPress plugin developed by Ngô Thắng IT. The flaw exists in all plugin versions up to and including 0.1.3. According to the Patchstack advisory, the CSRF weakness can be chained to achieve stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), expanding the impact beyond a simple state-changing request. The vulnerability is tracked under CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery.
Critical Impact
An attacker who tricks an authenticated WordPress administrator into visiting a crafted page can submit forged requests to the plugin, leading to stored XSS that executes in the context of site users.
Affected Products
- Ngô Thắng IT PPO Call To Actions plugin for WordPress
- All versions from n/a through <= 0.1.3
- WordPress installations with the ppo-call-to-actions plugin active
Discovery Timeline
- 2025-01-21 - CVE-2025-24001 published to NVD
- 2026-04-23 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2025-24001
Vulnerability Analysis
The PPO Call To Actions plugin fails to validate the origin of state-changing HTTP requests. WordPress provides nonce tokens through functions such as wp_nonce_field() and check_admin_referer() to bind requests to an authenticated session. The plugin's administrative request handlers do not enforce these checks consistently, allowing forged requests submitted from external origins to be processed as legitimate.
Because the forged input is later rendered without adequate output encoding, an attacker can inject HTML or JavaScript that is persistently stored in the plugin's data. This converts a CSRF primitive into a stored XSS attack chain, increasing the practical impact against site visitors and administrators. User interaction is required, as the victim must visit an attacker-controlled page while authenticated to the target WordPress site.
Root Cause
The root cause is missing or insufficient CSRF protection on plugin endpoints that accept user-supplied content [CWE-352]. The plugin does not require a valid WordPress nonce on requests that modify Call To Action records, and it does not sanitize or escape stored values before rendering them.
Attack Vector
The attack vector is network-based and requires user interaction. An attacker crafts a malicious HTML page containing an auto-submitting form or image tag targeting the vulnerable plugin endpoint. When an authenticated administrator visits the attacker-controlled page, the browser submits the forged request using the administrator's session cookies. The payload is stored in the plugin's configuration and executed in the browser of any user who later loads the affected page.
No verified public proof-of-concept code is available. Refer to the Patchstack Plugin Vulnerability Advisory for additional technical context.
Detection Methods for CVE-2025-24001
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected <script> tags, event handlers, or obfuscated JavaScript stored inside PPO Call To Actions plugin records
- WordPress access logs showing POST requests to plugin admin endpoints with Referer headers pointing to external domains
- New or modified Call To Action entries created without a corresponding administrator session in the audit trail
Detection Strategies
- Inspect the WordPress database tables and plugin options used by ppo-call-to-actions for HTML or JavaScript content in fields expected to hold plain text
- Review web server and WordPress audit logs for administrative actions on plugin endpoints that lack a same-origin Referer or include suspicious query parameters
- Run a web application scanner against staging instances to confirm whether stored XSS payloads persist after forged submissions
Monitoring Recommendations
- Alert on outbound browser requests from administrator workstations to unknown domains immediately preceded by WordPress admin activity
- Monitor for newly added administrator accounts, modified user roles, or unexpected plugin configuration changes following XSS execution
- Track HTTP responses serving plugin pages for <script> content originating from user-controlled fields
How to Mitigate CVE-2025-24001
Immediate Actions Required
- Deactivate the PPO Call To Actions plugin until a fixed version is published by the vendor
- Audit existing Call To Action records and remove any entries containing HTML or JavaScript payloads
- Force a password reset for WordPress administrator accounts that may have visited untrusted sites while logged in
Patch Information
At the time of the NVD entry, no fixed version beyond 0.1.3 is identified in the advisory. Monitor the Patchstack Plugin Vulnerability Advisory and the WordPress plugin repository for updates from Ngô Thắng IT, and apply the patched release as soon as it becomes available.
Workarounds
- Remove the plugin entirely if a Call To Action feature is not required for business operations
- Restrict access to /wp-admin/ using IP allowlists or VPN-only access to reduce CSRF exposure
- Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that blocks state-changing requests to plugin endpoints lacking a valid same-origin Referer header
- Require administrators to use isolated browser profiles or sessions when managing WordPress
# Example: disable the vulnerable plugin via WP-CLI
wp plugin deactivate ppo-call-to-actions
wp plugin delete ppo-call-to-actions
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
