CVE-2025-57978 Overview
CVE-2025-57978 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability [CWE-352] in the themespride Advanced Appointment Booking & Scheduling WordPress plugin. The flaw affects all versions of advanced-appointment-booking-scheduling up to and including 2.1. Attackers can trick authenticated users into submitting unintended state-changing requests to the plugin. Successful exploitation requires user interaction, such as clicking a crafted link or visiting a malicious page while authenticated to the target WordPress site. The vulnerability carries a CVSS 3.1 score of 4.3, reflecting limited integrity impact and the need for victim interaction.
Critical Impact
Attackers can perform unauthorized state-changing actions on behalf of authenticated WordPress users when they visit attacker-controlled content.
Affected Products
- themespride Advanced Appointment Booking & Scheduling plugin for WordPress
- All versions from n/a through <= 2.1
- WordPress sites with the advanced-appointment-booking-scheduling plugin installed and active
Discovery Timeline
- 2025-09-22 - CVE-2025-57978 published to NVD
- 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database
Technical Details for CVE-2025-57978
Vulnerability Analysis
The Advanced Appointment Booking & Scheduling plugin exposes one or more request handlers that perform state-changing operations without validating an anti-CSRF token. WordPress provides the wp_nonce_field() and check_admin_referer() primitives for this purpose, but the affected plugin code paths do not enforce nonce verification on sensitive requests. An attacker who lures an authenticated administrator or privileged user to a malicious page can cause the browser to issue an authenticated request to the vulnerable endpoint.
The request runs with the victim's session cookies and permissions. Because the CVSS vector indicates limited integrity impact and no confidentiality or availability consequences, exploitation typically modifies plugin data such as appointment records, configuration options, or scheduling entries rather than exfiltrating data. The Patchstack advisory catalogs this as a CSRF weakness in versions up to 2.1.
Root Cause
The root cause is missing or improperly validated CSRF tokens on plugin request handlers, categorized under [CWE-352]. The plugin trusts the presence of a valid session cookie as sufficient proof of user intent, which is insufficient to defend against cross-origin forged requests.
Attack Vector
Exploitation occurs over the network and requires user interaction. An attacker crafts an HTML page containing a form or image tag that triggers a request to the vulnerable plugin endpoint. When an authenticated WordPress user with the necessary privileges loads the attacker's page, the browser attaches session cookies and the request executes server-side. No credentials or prior privileges are required from the attacker directly. Additional technical detail is available in the Patchstack Vulnerability Report.
Detection Methods for CVE-2025-57978
Indicators of Compromise
- Unexpected modifications to appointment records, scheduling data, or plugin settings in the WordPress database
- HTTP POST or GET requests to plugin endpoints under /wp-admin/admin.php or /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with a Referer header pointing to an external, untrusted origin
- Administrator sessions performing plugin state changes shortly after visiting external links or email content
Detection Strategies
- Review web server access logs for requests to advanced-appointment-booking-scheduling handlers where the Referer header is missing or points to a third-party domain
- Correlate WordPress audit log entries for plugin configuration changes against administrator browsing telemetry
- Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule that flags authenticated POST requests to the plugin without a valid nonce parameter
Monitoring Recommendations
- Enable a WordPress activity logging plugin to capture setting changes and appointment modifications with user attribution
- Monitor for anomalous same-user request bursts to plugin endpoints originating from unusual referrers
- Alert on administrator accounts triggering plugin admin actions outside normal working hours
How to Mitigate CVE-2025-57978
Immediate Actions Required
- Identify all WordPress sites running the Advanced Appointment Booking & Scheduling plugin at version 2.1 or earlier
- Deactivate the plugin until a patched version above 2.1 is available and installed
- Instruct administrators to log out of WordPress before browsing untrusted content and to use separate browser profiles for admin sessions
Patch Information
At the time of the NVD entry, the advisory lists affected versions from n/a through <= 2.1. Site owners should monitor the plugin's WordPress.org page and the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for a fixed release and apply it as soon as it is published.
Workarounds
- Deactivate and remove the plugin until a patched release is available
- Deploy a WAF rule that blocks requests to the plugin's admin endpoints when the Referer header is absent or off-origin
- Restrict WordPress administrative access to specific IP ranges via .htaccess or reverse proxy controls to limit CSRF exposure
- Enforce the SameSite=Lax or SameSite=Strict attribute on WordPress session cookies to reduce cross-site request delivery
Disclaimer: This content was generated using AI. While we strive for accuracy, please verify critical information with official sources.
