CVE-2025-52746: Restaurante Plugin XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-52746 Overview

CVE-2025-52746 is a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting the WordPress Restaurante theme developed by ayecode. The vulnerability stems from improper neutralization of user-supplied input during web page generation, allowing attackers to inject malicious scripts that execute in the context of a victim's browser session.

Critical Impact

Attackers can exploit this reflected XSS vulnerability to steal session cookies, redirect users to malicious sites, perform actions on behalf of authenticated users, or deface website content.

Affected Products

• WordPress Restaurante Theme versions up to and including 3.0.7
• All WordPress installations using vulnerable Restaurante theme versions

Discovery Timeline

• 2026-01-22 - CVE CVE-2025-52746 published to NVD
• 2026-01-22 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-52746

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation). The Restaurante WordPress theme fails to properly sanitize user-controlled input before reflecting it back in the HTTP response. When a user visits a specially crafted URL containing malicious JavaScript, the script executes within the user's browser in the security context of the vulnerable WordPress site.

Reflected XSS attacks require social engineering to trick users into clicking malicious links. Once clicked, the injected script can access cookies, session tokens, and other sensitive information maintained by the browser for that site. The attack surface includes any parameters that are reflected in the page output without proper encoding or sanitization.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability lies in insufficient input validation and output encoding within the Restaurante theme. User-supplied data is incorporated into the HTML response without proper sanitization, allowing HTML and JavaScript injection. The theme does not implement adequate escaping functions such as esc_html(), esc_attr(), or wp_kses() that WordPress provides for secure output handling.

Attack Vector

The attack is executed via a network-based vector where an attacker crafts a malicious URL containing JavaScript payload in a vulnerable parameter. The attacker then distributes this URL through phishing emails, social media, or compromised websites. When a victim clicks the link while authenticated to the WordPress site, the malicious script executes with the victim's session privileges.

The vulnerability allows attackers to perform actions including session hijacking through cookie theft, credential harvesting via fake login forms, website defacement visible only to the victim, and redirection to malicious external sites.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-52746

Indicators of Compromise

• Unusual URL patterns containing encoded script tags or JavaScript event handlers in query parameters
• Web server logs showing requests with URL-encoded payloads such as %3Cscript%3E or javascript: strings
• Reports from users about unexpected browser behavior or redirections when visiting the WordPress site
• Security scanner alerts for reflected XSS patterns in the Restaurante theme components

Detection Strategies

• Deploy Web Application Firewalls (WAF) with XSS detection rulesets to identify and block malicious payloads
• Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to restrict script execution sources and report violations
• Enable WordPress security plugins that monitor for suspicious input patterns and XSS attempts
• Conduct regular vulnerability scans against WordPress installations using tools like WPScan

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor web server access logs for requests containing suspicious characters and script injection patterns
• Configure browser-side reporting mechanisms through CSP report-uri or report-to directives
• Set up alerts for increased 4xx errors that may indicate automated XSS scanning attempts
• Review WordPress activity logs for unauthorized administrative actions that could indicate successful exploitation

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-52746

Immediate Actions Required

• Update the Restaurante WordPress theme to a patched version when available from the vendor
• Implement a Web Application Firewall with XSS filtering rules as an interim protective measure
• Review and audit all user input handling in custom theme modifications
• Configure Content Security Policy headers to restrict inline script execution

Patch Information

As of the NVD publication date, users should monitor the Patchstack WordPress Vulnerability Advisory for updates on official patches. Contact ayecode for information on remediated versions of the Restaurante theme. Consider temporarily switching to an alternative WordPress theme if a patch is not immediately available and the site is at high risk.

Workarounds

• Deploy a WAF rule to filter requests containing common XSS payloads targeting the affected parameters
• Implement server-side input validation using WordPress sanitization functions such as sanitize_text_field() for any custom code
• Enable HTTP-only and Secure flags on session cookies to reduce the impact of successful XSS exploitation
• Add Content Security Policy headers to prevent execution of inline scripts: Content-Security-Policy: script-src 'self';

# Example: Add CSP header in .htaccess for Apache
Header set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline';"

# Example: Add CSP header in nginx configuration
add_header Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline';";