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Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)Weakness · CWE-352

CVE-2025-12535

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-11-19
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
62/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The SureForms plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery Bypass in all versions up to, and including, 1.13.1. This is due to the plugin distributing generic WordPress REST API nonces (wp_rest) to unauthenticated users via the 'wp_ajax_nopriv_rest-nonce' action. While the plugin legitimately needs to support unauthenticated form submissions, it incorrectly uses generic REST nonces instead of form-specific nonces. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to bypass CSRF protection on REST API endpoints that rely solely on nonce verification without additional authentication checks, allowing them to trigger unauthorized actions such as the plugin's own post-submission hooks and potentially other plugins' REST endpoints.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

The SureForms WordPress plugin (versions up to 1.13.1) distributes a generic WordPress REST API nonce (wp_rest) to all unauthenticated users via the wp_ajax_nopriv_rest-nonce action. Because this single nonce is shared across all unauthenticated users, an attacker can obtain it and use it to bypass CSRF protection on REST API endpoints that rely solely on nonce verification, enabling unauthorized triggering of form submission hooks and potentially other plugins' REST endpoints.

MitigationReplace generic wp_rest nonces with form-specific nonces generated via wp_create_nonce() or similar WordPress functions for each form submission, ensuring each form has a unique, session-bound nonce that cannot be reused across users or sessions.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify SureForms plugin installation and version
    Check if the SureForms plugin is installed in the WordPress plugins directory. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins in WordPress admin and look for SureForms. Confirm the version number is 1.13.1 or earlier.
    Affected if The SureForms plugin version is 1.13.1 or earlier, or if the version cannot be determined but the plugin is present.
  2. Identify the exposed REST nonce endpoint
    Make an unauthenticated AJAX request to the wp_ajax_nopriv_rest-nonce action. This typically involves calling admin-ajax.php with action=rest-nonce or examining the HTML source of a page with a SureForms form for a JavaScript variable containing the wp_rest nonce.
    Affected if An unauthenticated request returns a valid wp_rest nonce that is identical across different users or sessions.
  3. Confirm nonce reuse across users
    Submit two separate unauthenticated requests from different browser sessions or IP addresses to the AJAX endpoint that returns the nonce. Compare the nonce values - they should be different per session if properly implemented.
    Affected if The same nonce value is returned for multiple unauthenticated requests from different sessions, indicating a shared/generic nonce.
  4. Test CSRF bypass on form submission
    Using the obtained nonce from an unauthenticated request, attempt to submit a form via the REST API endpoint (typically /wp-json/sureforms/v1/submit or similar). Compare the response to a legitimate submission.
    Affected if The REST API accepts the nonce obtained via unauthenticated request and processes the form submission without requiring user-specific or session-specific authentication.

A user is affected if the SureForms plugin (version 1.13.1 or earlier) is installed and distributes a static or shared wp_rest nonce to unauthenticated visitors that can be reused across different users or sessions.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Replace generic wp_rest nonces with form-specific nonces generated via wp_create_nonce() or similar WordPress functions for each form submission, ensuring each form has a unique, session-bound nonce that cannot be reused across users or sessions.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
13.0 hours of engineering $2,290
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-12535 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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