CVE-2025-59574: WP Travel Engine Stored XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-59574 Overview

CVE-2025-59574 is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the WP Travel Engine WordPress plugin, specifically within the wte-elementor-widgets component. The flaw stems from improper neutralization of user-supplied input during web page generation [CWE-79]. Attackers with low-privileged authenticated access can inject persistent JavaScript payloads that execute in the browsers of visitors and administrators who view the affected pages. The vulnerability affects all WP Travel Engine plugin versions up to and including 1.4.2. Successful exploitation can lead to session theft, credential harvesting, and unauthorized actions performed within the context of the victim's browser session.

Critical Impact

Authenticated attackers can inject persistent JavaScript that executes against site visitors and administrators, enabling session hijacking and further compromise of the WordPress environment.

Affected Products

• WP Travel Engine plugin for WordPress (versions up to and including 1.4.2)
• The wte-elementor-widgets component
• WordPress sites using WP Travel Engine with Elementor integration

Discovery Timeline

• 2025-09-22 - CVE-2025-59574 published to the National Vulnerability Database
• 2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-59574

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability resides in the wte-elementor-widgets module of the WP Travel Engine plugin. This module extends Elementor with widgets tailored to travel and tour websites. Input passed to widget attributes is rendered into the page output without adequate encoding or sanitization. This allows an attacker with contributor or higher privileges to embed script payloads that persist in the database.

Any visitor who later renders a page containing the malicious widget will execute the injected script. The user interaction requirement is satisfied when an administrator opens the page in the WordPress editor or when a visitor loads the front-end page. Because the scope is changed, the injected script executes in the security context of the WordPress site itself, giving the attacker access to cookies, tokens, and DOM state accessible to the victim.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing output encoding when rendering Elementor widget attributes supplied by authenticated users. WordPress functions such as esc_html(), esc_attr(), and wp_kses_post() were either omitted or applied insufficiently. As a result, HTML metacharacters and <script> tags stored in widget content pass through to the rendered DOM unchanged.

Attack Vector

An attacker first authenticates with an account that has permissions to edit Elementor pages using WP Travel Engine widgets. The attacker then inserts a crafted payload into a vulnerable widget field, such as widget titles, descriptions, or link attributes. The payload is stored in the WordPress database. When any user renders the page, the browser parses and executes the attacker-controlled JavaScript. Refer to the Patchstack XSS Vulnerability Report for the disclosed technical details.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-59574

Indicators of Compromise

• Presence of <script>, onerror=, onload=, or javascript: strings within wp_postmeta entries associated with Elementor data (_elementor_data).
• Unexpected outbound HTTP requests from browsers loading WP Travel Engine pages, especially to attacker-controlled domains.
• New administrative users or unexpected privilege changes following administrator visits to affected pages.
• WordPress audit log entries showing contributor or author accounts editing Elementor pages containing WP Travel Engine widgets.

Detection Strategies

• Scan the wp_posts and wp_postmeta tables for HTML event handlers or script tags embedded within Elementor widget JSON payloads.
• Deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) rule set that flags XSS payload patterns in POST requests to admin-ajax.php and Elementor save endpoints.
• Review installed plugin versions and compare against the fixed release baseline for WP Travel Engine.

Monitoring Recommendations

• Monitor authenticated editor and contributor sessions for anomalous content modifications on travel-related pages.
• Enable Content Security Policy (CSP) reporting to capture blocked inline script execution attempts.
• Track access to /wp-admin/admin.php?page=elementor endpoints and correlate with subsequent front-end visits.

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-59574

Immediate Actions Required

• Update the WP Travel Engine plugin to a version released after 1.4.2 that contains the vendor fix.
• Audit all Elementor pages built with WP Travel Engine widgets for embedded scripts or suspicious HTML.
• Rotate WordPress administrator passwords and invalidate active sessions if compromise is suspected.
• Restrict Elementor editing capabilities to trusted user roles only.

Patch Information

Refer to the Patchstack XSS Vulnerability Report for the current fixed version guidance. Apply the vendor patch via the WordPress plugin manager or through automated update tooling.

Workarounds

• Temporarily disable the wte-elementor-widgets component if immediate patching is not possible.
• Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline script execution and restricts script sources to trusted origins.
• Remove Elementor edit capabilities from lower-privileged roles such as contributor and author until the patch is applied.
• Deploy WAF rules that block requests containing common XSS payload patterns targeting Elementor save endpoints.

# Example CSP header to mitigate inline script execution
Header set Content-Security-Policy "default-src 'self'; script-src 'self'; object-src 'none'; base-uri 'self'"