Overview
This article details a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability, identified as CVE-2025-8605, affecting the Gutenify – Visual Site Builder Blocks & Site Templates plugin for WordPress. This vulnerability allows authenticated attackers with contributor-level access or higher to inject malicious JavaScript code into website pages. This code executes whenever a user views the affected page, potentially leading to account compromise, data theft, and website defacement.
Technical Details
CVE-2025-8605 stems from insufficient input sanitization and output escaping within the Gutenify plugin’s block attributes. Specifically, user-supplied attributes are not properly validated or encoded before being stored in the WordPress database and subsequently displayed on website pages. This allows an attacker to inject arbitrary HTML and JavaScript code into these attributes. Because the code is stored in the database, it persists across sessions and executes automatically whenever a user visits the page containing the compromised Gutenify block.
The affected versions of the plugin are all versions up to and including 1.5.9.
CVSS Analysis
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) assigned a score of 6.4 (Medium) to CVE-2025-8605. This score reflects the following characteristics:
- Attack Vector: Network (AV:N)
- Attack Complexity: Low (AC:L)
- Privileges Required: Low (PR:L) – Contributor access or higher
- User Interaction: Required (UI:R) – Victim must visit the infected page
- Scope: Changed (S:C) – An attacker can execute code in the context of other users.
- Confidentiality Impact: Low (C:L)
- Integrity Impact: Low (I:L)
- Availability Impact: Low (A:L)
Possible Impact
Successful exploitation of CVE-2025-8605 can have severe consequences:
- Account Compromise: An attacker could steal the cookies of authenticated users who view the infected page, allowing them to hijack their accounts.
- Data Theft: Malicious JavaScript can be used to steal sensitive data from the website or the user’s browser, such as credentials or personal information.
- Website Defacement: The attacker could inject arbitrary HTML to deface the website and display malicious content.
- Redirection to Malicious Sites: Users visiting the compromised page could be redirected to phishing sites or other malicious destinations.
Mitigation or Patch Steps
The primary mitigation step is to update the Gutenify plugin to the latest version as soon as it becomes available. The updated version should include proper input sanitization and output escaping to prevent XSS attacks.
In the meantime, as a temporary measure, consider:
- Limiting User Permissions: Restrict contributor-level access to only trusted users.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): Implement a WAF with XSS protection rules to filter out malicious requests targeting the Gutenify plugin.
- Regular Security Audits: Conduct regular security audits of your WordPress website and plugins to identify and address potential vulnerabilities.
