Overview
A critical security vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-12645, has been discovered in the Inline Frame – Iframe plugin for WordPress. This flaw exposes websites to Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks. This article provides a detailed analysis of the vulnerability, its potential impact, and the necessary steps to mitigate the risk.
Technical Details
The vulnerability resides in the ’embedsite’ shortcode functionality of the Inline Frame – Iframe plugin, affecting all versions up to and including 0.1. The plugin fails to adequately sanitize user-supplied attributes within the shortcode. Specifically, when a user with contributor-level access or higher inserts the [embedsite] shortcode with malicious attributes, the plugin doesn’t properly escape these attributes before rendering them in the HTML output.
An attacker can inject arbitrary JavaScript code into a WordPress page or post. When a user visits the compromised page, the injected script executes in their browser, potentially allowing the attacker to steal cookies, redirect the user to a malicious website, or perform other actions on behalf of the user.
Example of a malicious shortcode:
[embedsite url="https://example.com" width="600" height="400" onload="alert('XSS Vulnerability!')"]In the above example, the `onload` attribute contains JavaScript code that will execute when the iframe loads, demonstrating the XSS vulnerability.
CVSS Analysis
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) score for CVE-2025-12645 is 6.4 (Medium).
- Attack Vector (AV): Network (N)
- Attack Complexity (AC): Low (L)
- Privileges Required (PR): Low (L) – Contributor or higher role
- User Interaction (UI): Required (R)
- Scope (S): Changed (C)
- Confidentiality Impact (C): Low (L)
- Integrity Impact (I): Low (L)
- Availability Impact (A): None (N)
While the impact on confidentiality and integrity is relatively low, the ease of exploitation and the potential for privilege escalation contribute to the medium severity rating.
Possible Impact
Successful exploitation of this vulnerability can lead to:
- Account Compromise: Attackers can steal user session cookies and hijack accounts.
- Malicious Redirects: Users can be redirected to phishing websites or other malicious resources.
- Website Defacement: Attackers can modify the content of the affected pages.
- Information Theft: Sensitive information displayed on the compromised pages can be stolen.
Mitigation and Patch Steps
The recommended course of action is to:
- Remove the Plugin: If you’re not actively using the Inline Frame – Iframe plugin, the safest option is to remove it entirely from your WordPress installation.
- Check for Updates: If a patched version of the plugin is available from the vendor, immediately update to the latest version. As of this writing (and considering the publish date), no patch exists. Removing the plugin is thus the current mitigation strategy.
- Review User Roles: Limit contributor-level access to trusted users only.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): Implement a WAF with rules that can detect and block XSS attacks. Consider configuring your WAF to block potentially malicious shortcodes until the plugin is removed or updated.
References
- CVE ID: CVE-2025-12645
- Plugin Source Code: https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/inline-frame-iframe/tags/0.1/iframe.php#L76
- Wordfence Threat Intelligence: https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/ceda1e49-4e65-4038-9207-ef4647838f53?source=cve
