CVE-2025-53287: Quick Favicon Stored XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-53287 Overview

CVE-2025-53287 is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Robert Cummings Quick Favicon WordPress plugin. The flaw affects all versions of the plugin up to and including 0.22.8. The issue results from improper neutralization of user-supplied input during web page generation, classified under [CWE-79]. An authenticated attacker with high privileges can inject persistent JavaScript payloads that execute in the browser of any user who views the affected page.

Critical Impact
Attackers can inject persistent JavaScript that executes in visiting users' browsers, enabling session theft, administrative action forgery, and site defacement across a scope change boundary.

Affected Products

Robert Cummings Quick Favicon plugin for WordPress
All versions from n/a through <= 0.22.8
WordPress sites with the plugin installed and active

Discovery Timeline

2025-06-27 - CVE-2025-53287 published to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-53287

Vulnerability Analysis

The Quick Favicon plugin fails to sanitize and escape user-controlled input before storing it and rendering it back to the browser. This produces a stored XSS condition, meaning the payload persists in the database and executes each time the affected page loads. Because the scope changes when the payload fires, the injected script can affect users beyond the attacker's own privilege context, including administrators and site visitors.

Successful exploitation can lead to session hijacking, cookie theft, unauthorized actions performed under a victim's session, and delivery of secondary malware or phishing content. EPSS data reports a low likelihood of near-term exploitation, but stored XSS remains a reliable primitive for post-authentication compromise chains against WordPress environments.

Root Cause

The vulnerability stems from missing output encoding and inadequate input validation within the plugin's request-handling code paths. Input submitted through plugin configuration or favicon-related fields is written to persistent storage and later echoed into HTML without proper context-aware escaping such as esc_html(), esc_attr(), or wp_kses(). This violates WordPress developer guidance for handling untrusted input in generated markup.

Attack Vector

Exploitation requires network access to the WordPress admin interface and an authenticated account with high privileges. User interaction is also required, since a victim must load the page containing the injected payload. An attacker who compromises or is granted a privileged account submits a crafted payload through a vulnerable plugin input field. The payload is stored server-side and executed in the browser of subsequent visitors, including administrators.

Refer to the Patchstack XSS Vulnerability Advisory for additional technical detail.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-53287

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected <script> tags, onerror, onload, or javascript: URIs stored in wp_options or plugin-specific database tables tied to Quick Favicon.
Outbound requests from administrator browsers to unfamiliar domains shortly after visiting WordPress admin pages.
New or modified administrator accounts created after a privileged user accessed a page rendering plugin-controlled content.
Anomalous file uploads or plugin installations correlated with admin session activity.

Detection Strategies

Audit plugin database entries for HTML or JavaScript characters in fields that should contain plain text or URLs.
Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule set that inspects requests to WordPress admin endpoints for XSS payload patterns.
Correlate WordPress access logs with browser-side error telemetry and Content Security Policy (CSP) violation reports.

Monitoring Recommendations

Monitor authenticated admin sessions for anomalous DOM behavior or script execution against admin pages.
Track version inventory of installed WordPress plugins and alert on Quick Favicon versions <= 0.22.8.
Log and alert on privilege changes, new user creation, and plugin installation events following admin logins.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-53287

Immediate Actions Required

Identify all WordPress sites with Quick Favicon installed and confirm the running version.
Deactivate and remove the Quick Favicon plugin until a patched release is verified and available.
Review high-privilege user accounts and rotate credentials for any account that could have submitted malicious input.
Inspect plugin-related database entries and remove any stored HTML or JavaScript payloads.

Patch Information

At the time of the NVD entry, the vulnerability affects Quick Favicon through version 0.22.8, and no fixed version is listed. Consult the Patchstack XSS Vulnerability Advisory for the current status of a vendor patch and apply any released update promptly.

Workarounds

Remove the Quick Favicon plugin and use an alternative favicon solution or the built-in WordPress site icon feature.
Restrict admin panel access using IP allowlisting, VPN, or reverse-proxy authentication.
Enforce a strict Content Security Policy (CSP) that blocks inline scripts and unauthorized script origins.
Apply the principle of least privilege and limit the number of accounts with high-privilege roles capable of triggering the flaw.

bash

# Configuration example: identify and disable the vulnerable plugin via WP-CLI
wp plugin list --name=quick-favicon --fields=name,status,version
wp plugin deactivate quick-favicon
wp plugin delete quick-favicon