CVE-2025-25074: WP Social Stream CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2025-25074 Overview

CVE-2025-25074 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the WP Social Stream plugin by Nirmal Kumar Ram for WordPress. The flaw affects all plugin versions up to and including 1.1. An attacker can chain the CSRF weakness to inject persistent JavaScript, resulting in Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) within the WordPress administration interface. Exploitation requires an authenticated administrator to visit an attacker-controlled page. The vulnerability is tracked under CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery.

Critical Impact
Successful exploitation allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to plant persistent JavaScript that executes in the browser of any user viewing the affected WordPress pages, enabling session theft and administrative account takeover.

Affected Products

WP Social Stream WordPress plugin versions up to and including 1.1
WordPress sites running the affected plugin with administrative users
Any environment where the plugin remains active and unpatched

Discovery Timeline

2025-02-07 - CVE-2025-25074 published to NVD
2026-04-23 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-25074

Vulnerability Analysis

The WP Social Stream plugin exposes administrative state-changing actions without enforcing CSRF protection. The plugin does not validate WordPress nonces on requests that modify plugin settings. An attacker who lures an authenticated administrator into visiting a crafted external page can submit forged requests using the administrator's active session.

Because the targeted setting fields are also missing output sanitization and escaping, the forged request can inject raw HTML and JavaScript. The injected payload persists in the plugin configuration and renders to users who view affected pages, producing a Stored XSS condition. The attack requires user interaction, but no prior authentication on the attacker's part.

Root Cause

The root cause is the absence of CSRF token validation, typically implemented in WordPress through wp_nonce_field() and check_admin_referer(). The plugin compounds this weakness by failing to sanitize user-supplied input on save and failing to escape output on render.

Attack Vector

The attack is delivered over the network. An attacker hosts a malicious page containing a hidden form or JavaScript that auto-submits a request to the vulnerable plugin endpoint on the target WordPress site. When an authenticated administrator visits the page, the browser submits the request with valid session cookies. The plugin processes the request and stores the attacker-supplied script, which then executes whenever the affected view is loaded. Refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for additional technical context.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-25074

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected <script> tags, event handlers, or obfuscated JavaScript stored in WP Social Stream configuration records within the wp_options table
Outbound browser requests from administrator sessions to unfamiliar domains following visits to the WordPress admin interface
New or modified administrative accounts created shortly after an admin session loaded a plugin-rendered page
Web server access logs showing cross-origin POST requests to plugin admin endpoints with Referer headers from external sites

Detection Strategies

Inspect plugin settings stored in the WordPress database for HTML or JavaScript content where only text is expected
Deploy web application firewall rules that flag POST requests to plugin admin endpoints missing valid WordPress nonce parameters
Monitor for anomalous administrator behavior, including settings changes immediately followed by privilege escalation events

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable WordPress activity logging to capture plugin option changes and correlate them with administrator session activity
Forward web server and WordPress audit logs to a centralized analytics platform such as Singularity Data Lake for cross-source correlation
Apply Content Security Policy (CSP) headers and alert on CSP violation reports indicating unexpected inline script execution

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-25074

Immediate Actions Required

Deactivate and remove the WP Social Stream plugin until a vendor-supplied patch is verified, as no fixed version is currently listed
Audit WordPress administrator accounts and rotate credentials for any account that may have visited untrusted sites while logged in
Review the wp_options table for plugin entries containing script content and remove malicious payloads

Patch Information

As of the last NVD update on 2026-04-23, no patched version of WP Social Stream has been published. The affected range covers all versions through 1.1. Administrators should monitor the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for fix availability.

Workarounds

Remove or disable the plugin across all WordPress sites in the environment
Restrict access to the /wp-admin/ directory by IP address using web server controls
Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline scripts to limit Stored XSS impact
Require administrators to use separate browser profiles or sessions when managing WordPress to reduce CSRF exposure

bash

# Disable the plugin via WP-CLI on affected WordPress installations
wp plugin deactivate wp-social-stream --all-sites
wp plugin delete wp-social-stream