CVE-2025-48240: WooCommerce Cost of Goods XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-48240 Overview

CVE-2025-48240 is a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the WPFactory Cost of Goods for WooCommerce plugin. The flaw affects all plugin versions up to and including 3.7.0. It results from improper neutralization of input during web page generation, classified as [CWE-79]. An authenticated attacker with low privileges can inject malicious scripts that persist within the WordPress site. When administrators or other users view the affected pages, the injected payload executes in their browser context. Successful exploitation can lead to session compromise, unauthorized administrative actions, and further attacks against site visitors.

Critical Impact
Stored XSS enables persistent script execution in the browsers of privileged WooCommerce users, exposing store administrators to session theft and account takeover.

Affected Products

WPFactory Cost of Goods for WooCommerce plugin (cost-of-goods-for-woocommerce)
All versions from initial release through 3.7.0
WordPress sites running WooCommerce with the affected plugin installed

Discovery Timeline

2025-05-19 - CVE-2025-48240 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-48240

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability is a stored cross-site scripting flaw in the Cost of Goods for WooCommerce plugin. The plugin fails to properly sanitize or encode user-supplied input before rendering it within WordPress admin or storefront pages. An attacker with authenticated access can submit crafted input containing HTML or JavaScript. That payload is stored in the WordPress database and later served to other users without proper output encoding.

Exploitation requires user interaction, meaning a victim must load the page containing the injected content. Because the scope is changed (S:C), the injected script can affect resources beyond the vulnerable component, including the WordPress admin session. Successful exploitation compromises confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected site to a limited degree.

The Patchstack XSS Vulnerability Report documents the finding and remediation guidance.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing or insufficient input sanitization combined with unsafe output rendering. Plugin code paths accept attacker-controlled data and echo it into HTML contexts without applying WordPress escaping functions such as esc_html(), esc_attr(), or wp_kses(). This allows raw <script> tags and event handler attributes to survive from input to rendered page.

Attack Vector

An authenticated user with contributor-level or higher privileges submits a malicious payload through a plugin input field. The payload is persisted to the database. When an administrator navigates to a page that renders the stored value, the browser executes the script. The attacker can then perform actions in the administrator's session, exfiltrate authentication cookies where accessible, or pivot to further compromise.

No verified public exploit code is available. The vulnerability is described in prose based on the plugin behavior documented in the Patchstack advisory.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-48240

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected <script> tags, javascript: URIs, or event handler attributes such as onerror= and onload= stored in WooCommerce product metadata or cost-of-goods configuration fields
WordPress admin sessions initiating outbound requests to unfamiliar domains shortly after viewing plugin pages
New administrator accounts or modified user roles created without a corresponding audit trail

Detection Strategies

Audit database entries related to the cost-of-goods-for-woocommerce plugin for HTML or JavaScript content in fields that should contain only numeric or plain-text data
Review web server logs for POST requests to plugin endpoints containing encoded script payloads or suspicious characters such as %3Cscript%3E
Correlate authenticated user activity with subsequent administrative changes to identify potential session abuse

Monitoring Recommendations

Enable WordPress activity logging to track user submissions and administrative actions across the plugin surface
Deploy a web application firewall with rules tuned to detect stored XSS payload patterns targeting WordPress plugins
Monitor for unauthorized changes to WordPress user accounts, roles, and plugin configurations

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-48240

Immediate Actions Required

Identify all WordPress installations running the Cost of Goods for WooCommerce plugin and confirm the installed version
Update the plugin to a version above 3.7.0 once the vendor releases a fixed release
Review existing plugin data for injected script content and remove any malicious entries
Rotate WordPress administrator credentials and invalidate active sessions if compromise is suspected

Patch Information

Refer to the Patchstack XSS Vulnerability Report for the latest fix status and upgrade guidance from WPFactory. Apply the vendor patch as soon as it becomes available in the WordPress plugin repository.

Workarounds

Restrict plugin configuration access to trusted administrators only and remove contributor or editor privileges where not required
Deploy a web application firewall to filter requests containing script tags and JavaScript event handlers targeting plugin endpoints
Apply a strict Content Security Policy that blocks inline script execution in the WordPress admin interface
Temporarily deactivate the plugin if it is not business-critical until a patched version is installed

bash

# Example WordPress CLI command to check plugin version
wp plugin get cost-of-goods-for-woocommerce --field=version

# Deactivate the plugin until a patch is applied
wp plugin deactivate cost-of-goods-for-woocommerce