CVE-2025-28925: WATI Chat Plugin CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2025-28925 Overview

A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability has been identified in the WATI Chat and Notification WordPress plugin developed by Hieu Nguyen. This vulnerability allows attackers to chain CSRF with Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), potentially enabling malicious actors to execute arbitrary JavaScript code in the context of authenticated users' browsers.

The vulnerability exists because the plugin fails to properly validate request origins and sanitize user input, creating a dangerous attack chain where an attacker can trick an authenticated administrator into unknowingly submitting malicious data that gets stored and later executed when viewed.

Critical Impact

Attackers can leverage this CSRF-to-Stored-XSS chain to hijack administrator sessions, steal sensitive data, modify website content, or perform unauthorized administrative actions on WordPress sites using the vulnerable plugin.

Affected Products

• WATI Chat and Notification WordPress Plugin versions up to and including 1.1.2
• WordPress installations using the wati-chat-and-notification plugin

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-03-11 - CVE-2025-28925 published to NVD
• 2026-04-15 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-28925

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability represents a dangerous combination of two distinct security weaknesses: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CWE-352) and Stored Cross-Site Scripting. The CSRF component allows attackers to forge requests on behalf of authenticated administrators, while the lack of proper input sanitization enables the storage and execution of malicious scripts.

When an administrator visits a malicious page while authenticated to their WordPress dashboard, the attacker can submit requests to the WATI Chat and Notification plugin's configuration endpoints without proper nonce verification. The submitted malicious payload is then stored in the plugin's settings and executed whenever the affected page is viewed, affecting all subsequent visitors including administrators.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability stems from two fundamental security failures in the WATI Chat and Notification plugin:

1. Missing CSRF Protection: The plugin does not implement proper nonce verification for state-changing operations, allowing cross-origin requests to modify plugin settings.

2. Insufficient Input Sanitization: User-supplied data is stored without adequate sanitization or encoding, allowing malicious JavaScript to be persisted and later rendered in users' browsers.

These combined weaknesses create an attack chain where CSRF becomes the entry vector and Stored XSS becomes the persistent payload mechanism.

Attack Vector

The attack follows a multi-stage exploitation pattern:

1. Reconnaissance: The attacker identifies a WordPress site using the vulnerable WATI Chat and Notification plugin (version 1.1.2 or earlier).

2. Payload Crafting: The attacker creates a malicious HTML page containing a hidden form that targets the plugin's configuration endpoints with XSS payloads.

3. Social Engineering: The attacker tricks an authenticated WordPress administrator into visiting the malicious page, often through phishing emails or compromised websites.

4. CSRF Execution: Upon visiting the malicious page, the hidden form automatically submits to the WordPress site, leveraging the administrator's active session to store the XSS payload.

5. Persistent Exploitation: The stored XSS payload executes whenever users visit pages containing the plugin's chat widget, potentially stealing session cookies, redirecting users, or performing further malicious actions.

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

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-28925

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected modifications to WATI Chat and Notification plugin settings in the WordPress database
• Presence of JavaScript code or HTML tags in plugin configuration fields where only plain text is expected
• Suspicious administrator activity logs showing plugin setting changes without corresponding legitimate administrator sessions
• Browser console errors or unexpected script executions originating from the chat widget

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block CSRF attack patterns targeting WordPress plugin endpoints
• Monitor WordPress wp_options table for unexpected changes to plugin-related entries containing script tags or event handlers
• Deploy Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to detect and report inline script injection attempts
• Utilize SentinelOne Singularity XDR to detect anomalous web traffic patterns and potential XSS payload delivery

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed WordPress activity logging to track all plugin configuration changes with associated user sessions and IP addresses
• Configure real-time alerts for any modifications to the WATI Chat and Notification plugin settings
• Implement integrity monitoring for WordPress database entries associated with the vulnerable plugin
• Review access logs for suspicious referrer patterns indicating potential CSRF attack sources

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-28925

Immediate Actions Required

• Update the WATI Chat and Notification plugin to the latest version that addresses this vulnerability
• Audit existing plugin settings for any signs of injected malicious scripts and sanitize if necessary
• Review WordPress activity logs for unauthorized configuration changes during the exposure window
• Consider temporarily disabling the plugin if an update is not yet available
• Implement a Web Application Firewall with CSRF and XSS protection rules

Patch Information

Organizations should check for updates to the WATI Chat and Notification plugin through the WordPress plugin repository. The vulnerability affects all versions through 1.1.2. Administrators should update to a patched version as soon as one becomes available.

For additional vulnerability details and patch status, refer to the Patchstack Vulnerability Report.

Workarounds

• Implement additional CSRF protection using security plugins that add nonce verification to all WordPress forms
• Add Content Security Policy headers to prevent execution of inline scripts and mitigate XSS impact
• Restrict administrative access to the WordPress dashboard to trusted IP addresses only
• Use browser extensions or configurations that block cross-site form submissions while performing administrative tasks

# WordPress CSP Header Configuration (add to .htaccess or nginx config)
# This helps mitigate the impact of stored XSS by restricting script sources
Header set Content-Security-Policy "script-src 'self' https://trusted-cdn.example.com; object-src 'none';"