CVE-2025-10166 in Social Media Shortcodes Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 09/17/2025
The Social Media Shortcodes plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the plugin's 'twitter' shortcode in all versions up to, and including, 1.3.1 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on user supplied attributes. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/18/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-10166 affects the Social Media Shortcodes plugin for WordPress, specifically targeting the 'twitter' shortcode functionality. This issue represents a critical security flaw that undermines the integrity of WordPress installations by enabling malicious actors to inject persistent malicious scripts into web pages. The vulnerability exists in all versions up to and including 1.3.1, making it a widespread concern for WordPress users who have not yet updated their plugins. The flaw stems from inadequate input sanitization and output escaping mechanisms within the plugin's codebase, which fails to properly validate or sanitize user-supplied attributes before processing them.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability allows authenticated attackers who possess contributor-level access or higher to exploit the plugin's shortcode functionality. When an attacker crafts malicious input through the 'twitter' shortcode parameters, the plugin fails to adequately sanitize this input before rendering it on web pages. This insufficient sanitization creates a persistent cross-site scripting vector where malicious scripts can be stored within the plugin's processing logic and executed whenever any user accesses pages containing the compromised shortcode. The vulnerability operates at the application layer, specifically targeting the WordPress shortcode processing system and demonstrates a clear failure in proper input validation and output encoding practices. This type of vulnerability falls under CWE-79, which describes Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) conditions where untrusted data is used in the generation of web pages without proper sanitization or encoding.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script injection, as it provides attackers with the capability to perform various malicious activities within the context of affected WordPress sites. Once an attacker successfully injects malicious scripts through the vulnerable shortcode, they can potentially access user sessions, steal sensitive information, redirect users to malicious websites, or even modify content on the affected pages. The authentication requirement of contributor level access means that attackers who have gained access to legitimate user accounts or who can escalate privileges within the WordPress environment can exploit this vulnerability. This makes the attack surface particularly concerning for WordPress installations where multiple users have contributor or higher permissions, as these accounts may contain elevated privileges that could be leveraged for further compromise.
From a cybersecurity perspective, this vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566.001 which covers the use of malicious content delivered through social media platforms and web applications. The vulnerability's exploitation pathway through WordPress shortcodes represents a common attack vector used by threat actors targeting content management systems. The persistent nature of stored XSS attacks means that the malicious scripts remain active until manually removed from the plugin's processing logic or until the plugin is updated to address the vulnerability. Organizations should consider this vulnerability as part of their broader web application security posture, particularly when evaluating the security of third-party plugins and their potential to serve as attack vectors for more sophisticated compromises. The issue highlights the importance of proper input validation and output escaping practices as recommended in the OWASP Top Ten security standards, specifically addressing the need for robust sanitization of user inputs in web applications.
The recommended mitigation strategy involves immediate plugin updates to versions that address the input sanitization and output escaping deficiencies. Administrators should also implement additional security measures such as restricting user permissions to minimize the risk of privilege escalation attacks, monitoring for unauthorized shortcode usage, and implementing content security policies to limit the execution of malicious scripts. Regular security audits of WordPress plugins and themes should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities, and automated scanning tools should be deployed to detect potential XSS vectors within the application's codebase. Organizations should also consider implementing web application firewalls and security monitoring solutions to detect and prevent exploitation attempts targeting this specific vulnerability.