CVE-2025-23497
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 · uneditedCross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in albdesign Simple Project Manager simple-project-managment allows Stored XSS.This issue affects Simple Project Manager: from n/a through <= 1.2.2.
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 · moderate confidenceA CSRF vulnerability in albdesign Simple Project Manager plugin (<=1.2.2) allows attackers to inject malicious scripts through stored XSS. The lack of CSRF token validation on form submissions enables attackers to trick authenticated administrators into unknowingly executing privileged actions that store malicious scripts, which then execute for all users viewing the affected content.
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
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- Low
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:L
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify plugin is installedNavigate to WordPress admin > Plugins and look for 'albdesign Simple Project Manager' in the installed plugins listAffected if Plugin is not found in the installation
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Check installed versionIn Plugins list, click on the plugin details or view the readme.txt file within the plugin directory to find the version numberAffected if Version is 1.2.2 or lower
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Identify affected form endpointsExamine the plugin for form handlers that create or update projects, tasks, or client records. Common paths include /simple-project-manager/, /project/add/, /task/create/ or similar admin-ajax.php or admin-post.php endpointsAffected if Plugin contains project/task/client management forms accessible to administrators
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Test CSRF token presence on form submissionsSubmit a state-changing form (create/update project or task) and inspect the HTML source for a wpnonce or _wpnonce hidden field. Alternatively, attempt a cross-domain form submission to see if it succeeds without a tokenAffected if No nonce field (_wpnonce, wpnonce) is present in form HTML and the request executes successfully without one
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Verify stored data sanitizationCreate a test project/task with a script tag payload (e.g., <script>alert(1)</script>) in text fields, then view the created item as a different user or in the frontend to check if the script executesAffected if Script tags or HTML execute unescaped when viewing stored content
User is affected if the albdesign Simple Project Manager plugin is installed with version 1.2.2 or lower and the plugin's form submissions lack CSRF token validation, allowing stored XSS to be injected via CSRF.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataImplement CSRF token validation (WordPress nonces) on all form submissions and state-changing requests, and properly sanitize output encoding for all stored data before rendering.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,560.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-23497 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-23497 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data