CVE-2025-30940: Melipayamak Plugin Stored XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-30940 Overview

CVE-2025-30940 is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Melipayamak WordPress plugin. The flaw affects all versions of the plugin up to and including 2.2.12. It is classified under [CWE-79], improper neutralization of input during web page generation. An authenticated attacker with high privileges can inject persistent JavaScript payloads that execute in the browsers of users who view the affected pages. Exploitation requires user interaction, and the impact crosses a security scope boundary.

Critical Impact
Stored JavaScript payloads execute in visitors' sessions, enabling session theft, administrative action hijacking, and browser-based redirection or defacement within the WordPress admin context.

Affected Products

Melipayamak WordPress plugin versions through 2.2.12
WordPress sites with the Melipayamak plugin activated
Administrative and editorial user sessions interacting with affected plugin pages

Discovery Timeline

2025-06-06 - CVE-2025-30940 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-06-17 - Last updated in the NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-30940

Vulnerability Analysis

The Melipayamak plugin fails to neutralize user-supplied input before rendering it inside generated HTML output. An attacker submits a crafted payload through an input field exposed by the plugin. The payload is stored server-side and later returned to any user visiting the affected page. When the browser parses the response, the injected script executes in the origin context of the WordPress site.

Stored XSS is more persistent than reflected variants because the payload lives in the site's database. Every visitor to the affected view triggers the payload without additional attacker action. The scope change reflected in the vulnerability metadata indicates that code executes beyond the vulnerable component's original boundary, typically the WordPress admin interface or public-facing pages.

Root Cause

The plugin does not apply output encoding or input sanitization functions such as esc_html(), esc_attr(), or wp_kses() on data that is later rendered to browsers. WordPress provides these primitives explicitly to prevent [CWE-79] classes of flaws, and their absence in the plugin's rendering path allows raw HTML and script content to persist and execute.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires an authenticated user with high privileges to submit the payload, and a second user must load the affected page for the script to fire. The attack originates over the network through standard HTTP requests to the WordPress site. Because the payload executes in the victim's browser session, an attacker can hijack authenticated cookies, perform administrative actions, exfiltrate content, or pivot to further plugins and admin functionality. Refer to the Patchstack Melipayamak XSS Vulnerability advisory for additional technical context.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-30940

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected <script>, <iframe>, or event handler attributes such as onerror= and onload= stored within Melipayamak plugin database tables or WordPress wp_options and wp_postmeta entries related to the plugin.
Outbound browser requests from admin sessions to unfamiliar domains shortly after loading plugin-managed pages.
Newly created administrator accounts or modified user roles that correlate with an admin visiting a Melipayamak settings page.

Detection Strategies

Review WordPress database contents for HTML or JavaScript tokens inside Melipayamak-owned records, using SQL pattern searches for <script, javascript:, and onerror.
Inspect web server access logs for POST requests to Melipayamak endpoints containing URL-encoded script fragments.
Enable and review a Content Security Policy (CSP) report-only endpoint to surface inline script violations originating from plugin pages.

Monitoring Recommendations

Alert on modifications to WordPress admin user accounts, roles, and capabilities that follow visits to plugin-managed views.
Monitor for anomalous session activity from privileged accounts, including new API tokens or password resets initiated from unusual IP addresses.
Track plugin version inventory across managed WordPress installations and flag any instance still running Melipayamak 2.2.12 or earlier.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-30940

Immediate Actions Required

Update the Melipayamak plugin to a version released after 2.2.12 as soon as the vendor publishes a fixed release.
Audit existing Melipayamak configuration entries and stored records for previously injected payloads, and remove any suspicious content.
Rotate credentials and session tokens for administrator accounts that accessed affected plugin pages while the vulnerable version was installed.

Patch Information

The Patchstack advisory tracks the vulnerability against Melipayamak versions up to and including 2.2.12. Administrators should consult the plugin's WordPress.org page and vendor release notes for the specific fixed version and upgrade as soon as it is available.

Workarounds

Deactivate and remove the Melipayamak plugin until a patched release is confirmed and deployed.
Restrict high-privilege WordPress accounts to a minimum set of trusted administrators and enforce multi-factor authentication.
Deploy a web application firewall (WAF) rule to block requests containing common XSS payload patterns targeting Melipayamak endpoints.
Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline scripts and unapproved external script sources across the WordPress admin interface.

bash

# Configuration example: strict CSP header for WordPress admin via nginx
add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; object-src 'none'; base-uri 'self'; frame-ancestors 'self';" always;