CVE-2025-46522: Tabs gt-tabs CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2025-46522 Overview

CVE-2025-46522 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability [CWE-352] in the Billy Bryant Tabs (gt-tabs) WordPress plugin. The flaw affects all versions up to and including 4.0.3. Attackers can chain the CSRF weakness into a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attack, allowing malicious JavaScript to persist within the plugin's stored data. Exploitation requires a logged-in privileged user to visit an attacker-controlled page or click a crafted link. Once triggered, the injected script executes in the browser context of any user who later loads the affected content.

Critical Impact
Successful exploitation lets remote attackers store arbitrary JavaScript that runs in the context of WordPress site visitors and administrators, enabling session theft, content manipulation, and follow-on account takeover.

Affected Products

Billy Bryant Tabs (gt-tabs) WordPress plugin
All plugin versions up to and including 4.0.3
WordPress sites with the vulnerable plugin installed and active

Discovery Timeline

2025-04-24 - CVE-2025-46522 published to NVD
2026-04-23 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-46522

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability combines two distinct weaknesses into a single attack chain. The Tabs plugin exposes state-changing administrative actions that do not verify the origin of incoming requests. Because the plugin lacks anti-CSRF tokens (commonly implemented via WordPress nonces), an attacker can forge a request that an authenticated administrator's browser will submit automatically.

The forged request writes attacker-controlled input into plugin storage without sufficient output encoding or input sanitization. When the stored content is rendered back to users, the browser interprets the payload as executable JavaScript. This produces a Stored XSS condition that persists across sessions and affects every user who loads the page containing the injected tab content.

The attack requires user interaction, meaning the targeted administrator must visit a malicious page or follow a crafted link while authenticated to the WordPress instance.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing CSRF protection on plugin endpoints that accept and store user-supplied data. WordPress provides wp_nonce_field() and check_admin_referer() to bind requests to a session, but the affected plugin does not enforce these controls on the vulnerable handlers. Compounding the issue, the stored input is not properly sanitized or escaped on output, allowing HTML and script content to survive the storage cycle.

Attack Vector

The attack is network-based and exploits the trust a WordPress site places in authenticated administrator sessions. An attacker hosts a page containing an auto-submitting form or fetch request that targets the vulnerable plugin endpoint. When a logged-in administrator visits the page, the browser sends the forged request along with valid session cookies. The plugin processes the request and persists the malicious payload. Each subsequent page load that includes the affected tab content executes the stored script in the visitor's browser. Refer to the Patchstack WordPress Vulnerability Analysis for additional technical context.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-46522

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected <script> tags, event handlers, or obfuscated JavaScript stored within Tabs plugin content in the WordPress database.
Outbound requests from site visitors to unknown domains after rendering pages that embed Tabs shortcodes.
New or modified administrator accounts following an administrator session interacting with the plugin admin pages.
Anomalous POST requests to wp-admin endpoints associated with gt-tabs lacking a matching Referer header from the same origin.

Detection Strategies

Inspect plugin database tables and wp_options entries for HTML or JavaScript artifacts inside tab titles and tab content fields.
Review web server logs for POST requests to plugin admin handlers with cross-origin Referer values or missing nonce parameters.
Deploy a Content Security Policy (CSP) in report-only mode to surface inline script execution originating from plugin-rendered pages.

Monitoring Recommendations

Alert on edits to plugin-managed content occurring outside normal administrative working hours.
Monitor administrator browsers for navigation to untrusted external domains immediately before privileged WordPress actions.
Forward WordPress audit logs, web server access logs, and EDR telemetry to a centralized analytics pipeline for correlation across user, request, and stored content events.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-46522

Immediate Actions Required

Identify all WordPress sites with the Billy Bryant Tabs (gt-tabs) plugin installed and confirm the installed version.
Deactivate the plugin on any site running version 4.0.3 or earlier until a patched release is verified.
Audit existing tab entries for injected HTML or JavaScript and remove any unauthorized content from the database.
Force a password reset and session invalidation for administrator accounts that may have interacted with the plugin during the exposure window.

Patch Information

At the time of publication, no fixed version is listed in the NVD record. Versions through 4.0.3 are confirmed vulnerable. Site operators should monitor the Patchstack advisory and the WordPress plugin repository for an updated release that introduces nonce verification and proper output escaping.

Workarounds

Remove or deactivate the gt-tabs plugin until a patched version is available.
Restrict access to wp-admin using IP allowlists or a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that blocks cross-origin POST requests to plugin endpoints.
Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline script execution on pages rendering plugin content.
Require administrators to use isolated browser profiles for WordPress administration to reduce CSRF exposure from unrelated browsing.

bash

# Example WordPress CLI commands to inventory and disable the vulnerable plugin
wp plugin list --name=gt-tabs --fields=name,status,version
wp plugin deactivate gt-tabs