CVE-2025-58268: WPMK PDF Generator CSRF Vulnerability

CVE-2025-58268 Overview

CVE-2025-58268 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting the WPMK PDF Generator WordPress plugin. This vulnerability allows attackers to perform unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated administrators, ultimately leading to Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks. The chained nature of this vulnerability—combining CSRF with Stored XSS—significantly amplifies its potential impact on affected WordPress installations.

Critical Impact

Attackers can exploit this CSRF vulnerability to inject persistent malicious scripts into WordPress sites, potentially compromising administrator sessions, stealing sensitive data, or redirecting site visitors to malicious destinations.

Affected Products

• WPMK PDF Generator plugin versions up to and including 1.0.1
• WordPress installations running vulnerable versions of wpmk-pdf-generator
• All WordPress sites with the WPMK PDF Generator plugin active without proper CSRF protections

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-09-22 - CVE-2025-58268 published to NVD
• 2026-04-23 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-58268

Vulnerability Analysis

This vulnerability exists due to missing or improperly implemented CSRF token validation in the WPMK PDF Generator WordPress plugin. The plugin fails to verify that form submissions originate from legitimate, authenticated user sessions, allowing attackers to craft malicious requests that execute when an authenticated administrator visits an attacker-controlled page.

The attack chain involves two distinct vulnerability classes working in tandem. First, the CSRF vulnerability allows an attacker to submit unauthorized form data to the plugin's administrative endpoints. Second, the submitted data is stored without proper output encoding, resulting in Stored XSS. This means malicious JavaScript payloads persist in the WordPress database and execute whenever the affected pages are viewed.

The vulnerability is classified under CWE-352 (Cross-Site Request Forgery), indicating that the application does not sufficiently verify whether a well-formed, valid, consistent request was intentionally provided by the user who submitted the request.

Root Cause

The root cause of CVE-2025-58268 stems from the absence of nonce verification in the WPMK PDF Generator plugin's form handling routines. WordPress provides built-in CSRF protection through its nonce system (wp_nonce_field() and wp_verify_nonce()), but the vulnerable plugin versions do not implement these security controls. Additionally, user-supplied input is stored and later rendered without proper sanitization or encoding, enabling the secondary Stored XSS condition.

Attack Vector

The attack requires network access and user interaction—specifically, an authenticated administrator must be tricked into visiting a malicious page while logged into their WordPress site. The attacker crafts a webpage containing hidden form elements that automatically submit to the vulnerable plugin endpoint when loaded. Since the victim's browser automatically includes valid session cookies with the forged request, the WordPress installation processes the malicious submission as if it were a legitimate administrative action.

Once the malicious payload is stored, any user viewing the affected content will have the injected JavaScript execute in their browser context. This can lead to session hijacking, administrative account compromise, website defacement, or malware distribution to site visitors.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-58268

Indicators of Compromise

• Unexpected or unauthorized changes to PDF generator plugin settings
• Presence of suspicious JavaScript code in plugin-related database entries
• Administrator session anomalies or unauthorized administrative actions in audit logs
• Reports from users experiencing unexpected redirects or browser warnings when viewing site content

Detection Strategies

• Review WordPress database tables associated with the WPMK PDF Generator plugin for suspicious script tags or JavaScript code
• Monitor web server access logs for unusual POST requests to plugin administrative endpoints from external referrers
• Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to detect and report inline script execution violations
• Use WordPress security plugins that can scan for stored XSS payloads in database content

Monitoring Recommendations

• Enable and review WordPress audit logging for all administrative actions related to the WPMK PDF Generator plugin
• Configure alerting for changes to plugin settings that occur without corresponding legitimate administrative sessions
• Deploy web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block CSRF attack patterns targeting WordPress plugins

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-58268

Immediate Actions Required

• Update the WPMK PDF Generator plugin to a patched version if available, or deactivate and remove the plugin if no patch exists
• Audit the WordPress database for any injected malicious content and remove unauthorized entries
• Review administrator account sessions and force logout of all users to invalidate potentially compromised sessions
• Implement a Web Application Firewall (WAF) with CSRF and XSS protection rules

Patch Information

As of the last NVD update, WPMK PDF Generator versions through 1.0.1 remain affected. Administrators should check the Patchstack Vulnerability Report for the latest remediation guidance and patch availability. If no official patch is available, consider removing the plugin entirely and using an alternative PDF generation solution with proper security controls.

Workarounds

• Deactivate the WPMK PDF Generator plugin until a security patch is released
• Implement additional CSRF protection at the server or WAF level to block forged requests
• Restrict administrative access to trusted IP addresses to reduce the attack surface
• Train administrators to avoid clicking untrusted links while logged into WordPress

# WordPress CLI - Deactivate vulnerable plugin
wp plugin deactivate wpmk-pdf-generator

# Verify plugin is deactivated
wp plugin list --status=inactive | grep wpmk-pdf-generator

# Optional: Remove plugin entirely if no patch available
wp plugin delete wpmk-pdf-generator