CVE-2025-6251: Royal Elementor Addons XSS Vulnerability

CVE-2025-6251 Overview

CVE-2025-6251 is a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Royal Elementor Addons and Templates plugin for WordPress. The flaw affects all plugin versions up to and including 1.7.1036. The vulnerability resides in the form builder widget, specifically in the handling of the $item['field_id'] parameter, which lacks proper input sanitization and output escaping [CWE-79].

Authenticated attackers with Contributor-level access or higher can inject arbitrary JavaScript into pages. The injected scripts execute in the browser context of any user who visits an affected page, enabling session theft, credential harvesting, or unauthorized administrative actions.

Critical Impact
Authenticated Contributor-level users can inject persistent JavaScript that executes against site visitors and administrators, enabling account takeover and content manipulation.

Affected Products

Royal Elementor Addons and Templates plugin for WordPress
All versions up to and including 1.7.1036
WordPress sites that permit Contributor-level or higher user registration

Discovery Timeline

2025-11-19 - CVE-2025-6251 published to the National Vulnerability Database
2026-06-17 - Last updated in NVD database

Technical Details for CVE-2025-6251

Vulnerability Analysis

The vulnerability exists in the form builder widget of the Royal Elementor Addons and Templates plugin. The plugin processes user-supplied values for $item['field_id'] without performing sufficient input sanitization or output escaping before rendering the value in generated HTML output.

Because the injected payload is persisted with the form configuration, the attack qualifies as Stored XSS rather than a reflected variant. Every visitor rendering a page containing the malicious form field executes the attacker-controlled script. Scope is marked as changed in the CVSS vector because script execution crosses the trust boundary from the vulnerable component to the visitor's browser session.

See the WordPress Plugin Source Code reference and the Wordfence Vulnerability Report for technical details on the affected code path.

Root Cause

The root cause is missing sanitization of the field_id attribute supplied by authenticated users when defining form fields. WordPress provides functions such as sanitize_key() and esc_attr() for these contexts. The plugin failed to apply appropriate escaping before writing the attribute into the DOM, allowing arbitrary HTML and JavaScript to break out of the intended attribute context.

Attack Vector

An attacker with Contributor privileges creates or edits a page containing a Royal Elementor form. They supply a crafted field_id value containing JavaScript payloads. When the page is previewed, published, or accessed by administrators and site visitors, the script executes in their browser session.

Exploitation requires authenticated access at Contributor level or higher and network reachability to the target WordPress site. No user interaction beyond visiting the affected page is required for the payload to execute.

The vulnerability manifests through improperly escaped output in the form builder rendering logic. See the referenced advisories for the specific line affected in wpr-form-builder.php.

Detection Methods for CVE-2025-6251

Indicators of Compromise

Unexpected <script> tags, javascript: URIs, or event handler attributes (onerror, onload) in stored WordPress post content or postmeta rows
Royal Elementor form field definitions containing HTML control characters in the field_id attribute
Outbound HTTP requests from administrator browsers to unfamiliar domains following page visits
New administrator accounts or altered user roles created shortly after page rendering by privileged users

Detection Strategies

Query the WordPress database for wp_posts and wp_postmeta entries containing suspicious characters in Royal Elementor form configurations
Review site audit logs for Contributor-level accounts editing pages that contain form builder widgets
Deploy Content Security Policy (CSP) headers with reporting to surface unauthorized inline script execution
Scan rendered page HTML for JavaScript payloads originating from form field identifiers

Monitoring Recommendations

Monitor creation and modification of pages by non-administrator roles, especially Contributor and Author accounts
Alert on installation of WordPress plugins at versions 1.7.1036 and earlier of Royal Elementor Addons
Track administrator session anomalies including unexpected privilege changes or API calls from admin browsers
Log and review all POST requests to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php referencing Royal Elementor form builder actions

How to Mitigate CVE-2025-6251

Immediate Actions Required

Update the Royal Elementor Addons and Templates plugin to the latest version released after 1.7.1036
Audit all Contributor, Author, and Editor accounts and remove any that are unnecessary or unrecognized
Review existing pages built with Royal Elementor form widgets for injected script content
Rotate credentials for administrator accounts if untrusted low-privilege users had access during the exposure window

Patch Information

Refer to the Wordfence Vulnerability Report for the current patched version and vendor release notes. Update the plugin through the WordPress admin dashboard or via WP-CLI to apply the fix.

Workarounds

Restrict Contributor-level and higher account creation until the plugin is patched
Temporarily deactivate the Royal Elementor Addons and Templates plugin on sites that permit untrusted authors
Deploy a web application firewall (WAF) rule to block HTML control characters in form builder AJAX payloads
Enforce a strict Content Security Policy that disallows inline script execution on public pages

bash

# Update the plugin using WP-CLI
wp plugin update royal-elementor-addons

# Verify installed version
wp plugin get royal-elementor-addons --field=version

# Temporarily deactivate if patching is delayed
wp plugin deactivate royal-elementor-addons