CVE-2025-3742 in Responsive Lightbox & Gallery Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 05/15/2025
The Responsive Lightbox & Gallery WordPress plugin before 2.5.1 does not validate and escape some of its attributes before outputting them back in a page/post, which could allow users with the contributor role and above to perform Stored Cross-Site Scripting attacks.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/15/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-3742 affects the Responsive Lightbox & Gallery WordPress plugin version 2.5.0 and earlier, presenting a critical security risk through stored cross-site scripting vulnerabilities. This issue arises from insufficient validation and sanitization of user input attributes within the plugin's codebase, creating an avenue for malicious actors to inject persistent malicious scripts into WordPress pages and posts. The vulnerability specifically targets the plugin's handling of attributes that are subsequently outputted back to users without proper security measures, making it particularly dangerous in environments where multiple user roles exist with varying privilege levels.
The technical flaw stems from the plugin's failure to properly validate and escape user-supplied attributes before rendering them in HTML output contexts. This oversight creates a stored XSS vulnerability that allows attackers with contributor-level privileges or higher to inject malicious JavaScript code into the plugin's configuration attributes. When these attributes are later rendered in web pages, the injected scripts execute in the context of other users who view the affected content, potentially leading to session hijacking, credential theft, or further exploitation of the compromised WordPress installation. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-79, which categorizes cross-site scripting flaws as weaknesses in input validation and output encoding, specifically addressing the failure to properly escape output data.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it enables attackers to manipulate the WordPress environment in ways that can compromise entire websites. Contributors and above typically have sufficient privileges to modify content, create posts, and potentially access plugin settings, making this vulnerability particularly dangerous in multi-user WordPress environments. Once exploited, the stored XSS could allow attackers to access administrative functions, modify content, steal user sessions, or redirect victims to malicious sites. The vulnerability's persistence stems from the stored nature of the attack, meaning that once the malicious script is injected, it remains active until manually removed from the plugin's attributes, potentially affecting all users who access the compromised content.
Security mitigations for CVE-2025-3742 primarily involve immediate plugin updates to version 2.5.1 or later, which includes proper input validation and output escaping mechanisms. Organizations should also implement additional security measures including regular security audits of WordPress plugins, implementing content security policies to limit script execution, and monitoring user activities for suspicious modifications. The remediation aligns with ATT&CK technique T1548.001, which addresses privilege escalation through the manipulation of application code, and emphasizes the importance of keeping software components updated to address known vulnerabilities. Administrators should also consider implementing web application firewalls and input validation controls as additional defensive measures to protect against similar vulnerabilities in other plugins and themes.