CVE-2025-46251: VikRestaurants CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2025-46251 Overview

A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability has been identified in the VikRestaurants Table Reservations and Take-Away plugin for WordPress. This vulnerability allows attackers to trick authenticated users into performing unintended actions by crafting malicious requests that exploit missing or inadequate CSRF token validation. The vulnerability chain can escalate to Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), significantly amplifying the potential impact on affected WordPress installations.

Critical Impact

Attackers can leverage this CSRF vulnerability to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated administrators, potentially leading to persistent XSS attacks that compromise site visitors and administrative accounts.

Affected Products

• VikRestaurants Table Reservations and Take-Away plugin versions through 1.3.3
• WordPress installations running vulnerable VikRestaurants plugin versions
• E4jconnect VikRestaurants WordPress plugin (all versions up to and including 1.3.3)

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-04-22 - CVE-2025-46251 published to NVD
• 2026-04-01 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-46251

Vulnerability Analysis

This CSRF vulnerability exists in the VikRestaurants WordPress plugin due to insufficient validation of request origin and missing anti-CSRF tokens on sensitive state-changing operations. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-352 (Cross-Site Request Forgery), indicating that the application fails to verify whether a legitimate user intended to submit a particular request.

The attack requires user interaction—specifically, an authenticated administrator must visit a malicious page or click a crafted link while logged into their WordPress dashboard. The vulnerability is network-accessible and does not require prior authentication from the attacker's perspective, making it viable for remote exploitation scenarios.

What makes this vulnerability particularly concerning is the CSRF-to-Stored-XSS attack chain. By exploiting the CSRF flaw, attackers can inject persistent malicious scripts into the restaurant management interface, which then execute whenever administrators or potentially site visitors interact with the affected content.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability is the absence of proper CSRF protection mechanisms in the VikRestaurants plugin's form handling and AJAX request processing. WordPress provides built-in nonce verification functions (wp_nonce_field(), wp_verify_nonce(), and check_admin_referer()) that should be implemented to validate the authenticity of requests. The vulnerable versions of VikRestaurants fail to properly implement these security controls on one or more administrative endpoints.

Attack Vector

The attack exploits the network-accessible nature of WordPress administrative functions. An attacker constructs a malicious webpage or email containing hidden forms or JavaScript that automatically submits requests to the vulnerable VikRestaurants endpoints. When an authenticated WordPress administrator visits the attacker-controlled content, their browser automatically includes session cookies with the malicious request, causing the application to process it as a legitimate administrative action.

The attack flow typically involves:

1. Attacker identifies vulnerable endpoints in the VikRestaurants plugin that lack CSRF protection
2. Attacker crafts a malicious page containing auto-submitting forms targeting these endpoints
3. Attacker social-engineers a logged-in administrator to visit the malicious page
4. The administrator's browser submits the forged request with valid session credentials
5. The plugin processes the request, potentially storing XSS payloads that persist in the database

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

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-46251

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected modifications to restaurant menu items, reservations, or plugin settings without administrator action
• Presence of suspicious JavaScript code in plugin-managed content or database entries
• Access logs showing administrative plugin endpoints being accessed from unusual referrer URLs
• User reports of browser redirects or unexpected behavior when viewing restaurant pages

Detection Strategies

• Monitor WordPress administrative action logs for plugin configuration changes made without corresponding admin dashboard sessions
• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block requests to VikRestaurants endpoints originating from external referrers
• Scan database content managed by VikRestaurants for injected script tags or suspicious HTML attributes
• Review server access logs for patterns consistent with CSRF exploitation, such as POST requests to admin endpoints with external or missing referrer headers

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable WordPress audit logging plugins to track all administrative actions with timestamp and origin information
• Configure real-time alerting for modifications to plugin settings or content outside of normal administrative workflows
• Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to mitigate the impact of successful XSS injection
• Regularly scan stored content for potentially malicious scripts using automated security scanning tools

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-46251

Immediate Actions Required

• Update VikRestaurants Table Reservations and Take-Away plugin to the latest patched version immediately
• Audit database content for signs of injected malicious scripts, particularly in fields managed by the VikRestaurants plugin
• Review WordPress administrative user accounts for unauthorized changes or newly created accounts
• Implement a Web Application Firewall with CSRF protection rules as an interim measure
• Advise WordPress administrators to log out of sessions when not actively managing the site

Patch Information

Organizations using the VikRestaurants Table Reservations and Take-Away plugin should upgrade to a version newer than 1.3.3 that addresses this CSRF vulnerability. Check the plugin's official page on WordPress.org or the vendor's website for the latest security update. The Patchstack Vulnerability Advisory provides additional details on the remediation status.

Workarounds

• Restrict access to the WordPress admin area using IP whitelisting or VPN requirements
• Implement additional authentication factors for WordPress administrative access
• Use browser-based CSRF protection extensions during administrative sessions
• Consider temporarily disabling the VikRestaurants plugin if the restaurant functionality is not business-critical until a patch is applied

# Configuration example - Add to wp-config.php to restrict admin access
# Restrict admin access to specific IP addresses (adjust as needed)
# Note: This is a general WordPress hardening measure, not a direct fix

# Add to .htaccess in wp-admin directory
# <Files "*.php">
#   Order Deny,Allow
#   Deny from all
#   Allow from YOUR.TRUSTED.IP.ADDRESS
# </Files>

# Verify VikRestaurants plugin version via WP-CLI
wp plugin list --name=vikrestaurants --fields=name,version,status