CVE-2025-52796: WP-Recall Reflected XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-52796 Overview

CVE-2025-52796 is a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability discovered in the WP-Recall WordPress plugin. This vulnerability stems from improper neutralization of input during web page generation, allowing attackers to inject malicious scripts that execute in the context of a victim's browser session. The WP-Recall plugin is a popular WordPress extension used for user registration, profile management, and community features on WordPress sites.

Reflected XSS vulnerabilities like this one require user interaction—typically clicking a malicious link—but can lead to session hijacking, credential theft, defacement, or further attacks against authenticated users. Given the plugin's role in managing user accounts and profiles, successful exploitation could compromise sensitive user data or administrative sessions.

Critical Impact

Attackers can execute arbitrary JavaScript in victims' browsers, potentially stealing session cookies, credentials, or performing actions on behalf of authenticated users including administrators.

Affected Products

• WP-Recall WordPress plugin versions up to and including 16.26.14
• WordPress installations using vulnerable WP-Recall versions
• Sites with WP-Recall user registration and profile features enabled

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-07-04 - CVE CVE-2025-52796 published to NVD
• 2026-04-15 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-52796

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation), commonly known as Cross-Site Scripting. The reflected variant of XSS occurs when user-supplied input is immediately returned by the application in an error message, search result, or other response without proper sanitization or encoding.

In the context of WP-Recall, the plugin fails to adequately sanitize user input before reflecting it back in the generated HTML output. This allows an attacker to craft a malicious URL containing JavaScript code that, when visited by a victim, executes within the trusted context of the vulnerable WordPress site.

The attack requires network access and user interaction (a victim must click on or visit the attacker-controlled URL). However, once triggered, the malicious script runs with the same privileges as the victim's session, enabling cross-origin attacks that can impact confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the affected application.

Root Cause

The root cause of this vulnerability lies in insufficient input validation and output encoding within the WP-Recall plugin. Specifically, user-controllable input parameters are reflected into the page response without proper HTML entity encoding or JavaScript escaping. WordPress provides built-in functions such as esc_html(), esc_attr(), and wp_kses() for sanitizing output, but these were not adequately applied to the vulnerable code paths in WP-Recall versions through 16.26.14.

Attack Vector

The attack vector for this reflected XSS vulnerability is network-based and requires user interaction. An attacker would craft a malicious URL containing JavaScript payload in a vulnerable parameter of the WP-Recall plugin. This URL would then be distributed to potential victims through phishing emails, social media, forum posts, or other channels.

When a victim clicks the malicious link while authenticated to the WordPress site, the injected script executes in their browser context. This can lead to:

• Session Hijacking: Stealing session cookies to impersonate the victim
• Credential Theft: Capturing keystrokes or redirecting to fake login pages
• Privilege Escalation: If an administrator clicks the link, attackers may gain admin access
• Malware Distribution: Redirecting users to malicious downloads
• Site Defacement: Modifying page content as seen by the victim

The vulnerability affects the changed scope boundary (S:C in CVSS vector), meaning successful exploitation can impact resources beyond the vulnerable component itself.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-52796

Indicators of Compromise

• Suspicious URLs in server access logs containing encoded JavaScript or HTML tags in WP-Recall related parameters
• Unusual script execution patterns or external resource loading from user sessions
• Reports from users about unexpected redirects or popups when accessing WP-Recall features
• Web application firewall (WAF) alerts for XSS patterns in requests to WordPress sites using WP-Recall

Detection Strategies

• Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block common XSS payloads in request parameters
• Enable WordPress security plugins with real-time scanning capabilities to identify malicious injection attempts
• Configure Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to restrict inline script execution and report violations
• Monitor server logs for requests containing suspicious characters such as <script>, javascript:, or encoded variants targeting WP-Recall endpoints

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable detailed logging for all WP-Recall plugin activities and user interactions
• Set up alerts for anomalous patterns in user session behavior that may indicate session hijacking
• Regularly audit referrer logs for suspicious external sources directing traffic to WP-Recall pages
• Implement browser-side monitoring using CSP reporting to capture attempted script injections

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-52796

Immediate Actions Required

• Update WP-Recall plugin to a version newer than 16.26.14 that addresses this vulnerability
• If an update is not immediately available, consider temporarily disabling the WP-Recall plugin until a patch is released
• Implement a Web Application Firewall with XSS protection rules as an additional defense layer
• Review and rotate session tokens for any users who may have been exposed to potential exploitation

Patch Information

Security patches for this vulnerability should be obtained through the official WordPress plugin repository or the WP-Recall developer. Administrators should monitor the Patchstack vulnerability database for updates on remediation status and patched versions.

Before applying updates in production environments, it is recommended to:

1. Backup your WordPress installation including the database
2. Test the update in a staging environment
3. Verify WP-Recall functionality after updating
4. Monitor for any issues post-deployment

Workarounds

• Implement strict Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to block inline JavaScript execution: Content-Security-Policy: script-src 'self'; object-src 'none';
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) configured to detect and block XSS attack patterns
• Restrict access to WP-Recall features to authenticated users only where possible to limit attack surface
• Educate users about the risks of clicking links from untrusted sources, especially those pointing to your WordPress site

# Apache .htaccess CSP configuration example
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
    Header set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; style-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline'; img-src 'self' data:; object-src 'none'; frame-ancestors 'self';"
    Header set X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block"
    Header set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
</IfModule>