Urgent: Stored XSS Vulnerability Discovered in Cute News Ticker WordPress Plugin (CVE-2025-13656)

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Overview

A Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability has been identified in the Cute News Ticker plugin for WordPress. This vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-13656, affects all versions up to, and including, 1.0. The flaw allows authenticated attackers with Contributor-level access or higher to inject malicious JavaScript code into WordPress pages and posts. This injected code can then execute whenever a user views the affected page, potentially leading to account compromise or other malicious activities.

Technical Details

The vulnerability lies within the handling of the color attribute within the plugin’s shortcode functionality. Specifically, the color attribute is not properly sanitized or escaped before being rendered on the page. This allows an attacker to inject arbitrary HTML and JavaScript code through this attribute. Contributors and other users with content creation privileges are able to craft malicious shortcodes like this:

[news_ticker color="<img src=x onerror=alert('XSS')>"]News Item[/news_ticker]

When this shortcode is processed and the page is viewed, the injected JavaScript will execute within the user’s browser.

CVSS Analysis

  • CVE ID: CVE-2025-13656
  • Severity: MEDIUM
  • CVSS Score: 6.4
  • Vector String (Estimated): CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

This vulnerability is rated as MEDIUM severity due to the requirement for authentication (Contributor access or higher) and the need for user interaction (viewing the affected page). The impact includes potential compromise of user accounts and defacement of the website.

Possible Impact

A successful exploit of this vulnerability can lead to various malicious outcomes, including:

  • Account Compromise: Attackers can steal user cookies and session tokens, allowing them to hijack user accounts, including administrator accounts.
  • Website Defacement: Attackers can modify the content and appearance of the website.
  • Malware Distribution: Attackers can redirect users to malicious websites or inject malware directly into the affected pages.
  • Phishing Attacks: Attackers can inject phishing forms into the website to steal sensitive information.

Mitigation and Patch Steps

Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, there is no patch available for the Cute News Ticker plugin (version 1.0 is still the latest version). Therefore, the following mitigation steps are recommended:

  1. Immediate Action: If you are using the Cute News Ticker plugin, immediately disable and uninstall it. This is the most effective way to prevent exploitation.
  2. Monitor for Updates: Keep an eye on the WordPress plugin repository for any updates to the plugin. If a patched version becomes available, thoroughly review the changes before updating.
  3. Consider Alternatives: Explore alternative news ticker plugins that are actively maintained and have a strong security track record.
  4. Web Application Firewall (WAF): If feasible, deploy a Web Application Firewall (WAF) and configure rules to detect and block XSS attacks targeting the color attribute in shortcodes.

References

Cute News Ticker 1.0 main-function.php (Tagged Version)
Cute News Ticker Trunk main-function.php
Cute News Ticker WordPress Plugin Page
Wordfence Threat Intelligence Report

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