CVE-2025-27276: Photo Gallery Plugin CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2025-27276 Overview

CVE-2025-27276 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability discovered in the Photo Gallery (Responsive) WordPress plugin developed by lizeipe, tracked as photo-gallery-pearlbells. This vulnerability allows attackers to perform privilege escalation attacks by exploiting the lack of proper CSRF protections in the plugin's administrative functions.

The vulnerability enables malicious actors to craft specially designed web pages that, when visited by an authenticated administrator, can trigger unauthorized actions within the WordPress installation. Due to missing or improper nonce validation, sensitive administrative operations can be executed without the user's knowledge or consent.

Critical Impact

Successful exploitation could allow attackers to escalate privileges within WordPress, potentially gaining administrative access to the affected website and compromising the entire web application.

Affected Products

• Photo Gallery (Responsive) WordPress Plugin version 4.0 and earlier
• WordPress installations using the photo-gallery-pearlbells plugin
• All versions from initial release through 4.0

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-02-24 - CVE-2025-27276 published to NVD
• 2026-04-15 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-27276

Vulnerability Analysis

This CSRF vulnerability exists because the Photo Gallery (Responsive) plugin fails to implement proper anti-CSRF tokens (nonces) in its administrative request handlers. WordPress provides the wp_nonce_field() and wp_verify_nonce() functions specifically to prevent CSRF attacks, but these protections are missing or improperly implemented in the affected versions of this plugin.

When a logged-in administrator visits a malicious page while authenticated to WordPress, the attacker can leverage this vulnerability to perform unauthorized actions. The privilege escalation component suggests that the vulnerable endpoints may allow modification of user roles, creation of new administrative accounts, or manipulation of plugin settings that affect user permissions.

The attack requires social engineering to lure an authenticated administrator to visit a malicious website or click on a crafted link. Once the victim's browser loads the malicious page, hidden forms or JavaScript can automatically submit requests to the vulnerable plugin endpoints, inheriting the administrator's session credentials.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-27276 is the absence of proper CSRF token validation in the plugin's administrative request handlers. WordPress best practices require plugins to:

1. Include nonce fields in forms using wp_nonce_field()
2. Validate nonces on the server side using check_admin_referer() or wp_verify_nonce()
3. Ensure all state-changing operations require valid, unexpired nonces

The Photo Gallery (Responsive) plugin fails to implement these security controls for sensitive operations that can modify user privileges, creating an exploitable attack surface.

Attack Vector

The attack follows a typical CSRF exploitation pattern targeting WordPress administrators:

1. The attacker identifies the vulnerable endpoint in the Photo Gallery plugin that handles privilege-related functions
2. A malicious HTML page is crafted containing hidden forms or JavaScript that submits requests to the vulnerable endpoint
3. The attacker distributes the malicious link through phishing emails, compromised websites, or social media
4. When an authenticated WordPress administrator visits the malicious page, their browser automatically sends the forged request with valid session cookies
5. The WordPress installation processes the request as if it originated from the legitimate administrator, executing the privilege escalation

For detailed technical information about this vulnerability, refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-27276

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected new administrator accounts in WordPress user management
• Modified user roles or capabilities without administrator action
• Plugin settings changed without legitimate administrative activity
• Unusual HTTP POST requests to plugin endpoints in access logs
• References to unknown external domains in HTTP referer headers for administrative requests

Detection Strategies

• Monitor WordPress user table for unauthorized role changes or new accounts with elevated privileges
• Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect CSRF patterns targeting WordPress plugins
• Review server access logs for POST requests to /wp-admin/ or plugin endpoints with external referer headers
• Enable WordPress security plugins that log administrative actions and alert on suspicious activity

Monitoring Recommendations

• Configure real-time alerts for user creation or role modification events in WordPress
• Deploy endpoint detection solutions that can identify browser-based CSRF exploitation attempts
• Implement integrity monitoring for WordPress database tables, particularly wp_users and wp_usermeta
• Use SentinelOne's behavioral AI to detect unusual process activity following web browser requests

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-27276

Immediate Actions Required

• Update the Photo Gallery (Responsive) plugin to the latest patched version immediately
• Audit existing WordPress user accounts for unauthorized administrators or role changes
• Temporarily deactivate the plugin if a patch is not yet available
• Implement additional CSRF protections through a WordPress security plugin or WAF

Patch Information

Organizations should check the WordPress plugin repository and the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for the latest security updates. Ensure the Photo Gallery (Responsive) plugin is updated beyond version 4.0 to a patched release that properly implements CSRF protection.

Workarounds

• Temporarily deactivate the Photo Gallery (Responsive) plugin until a security patch is available
• Restrict administrative access to trusted IP addresses using .htaccess or server-level firewall rules
• Implement a Content Security Policy (CSP) to reduce the risk of cross-origin form submissions
• Use browser extensions or policies that block automatic form submission on external sites
• Consider replacing the vulnerable plugin with an alternative photo gallery solution that follows WordPress security best practices

# Deactivate the vulnerable plugin via WP-CLI
wp plugin deactivate photo-gallery-pearlbells

# List all users with administrator role to audit for unauthorized accounts
wp user list --role=administrator

# Check for recently modified users
wp db query "SELECT user_login, user_registered FROM wp_users ORDER BY user_registered DESC LIMIT 10;"