CVE-2025-31039
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 · uneditedImproper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference vulnerability in pixelgrade Category Icon category-icon allows XML Entity Linking.This issue affects Category Icon: from n/a through <= 1.0.3.
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 confidenceImproper Restriction of XML External Entity Reference (XXE) vulnerability in the pixelgrade Category Icon WordPress plugin allows remote attackers to exploit XML entity linking through malicious XML input, potentially enabling disclosure of internal files, SSRF attacks, or denial of service.
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
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
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 Category Icon plugin is installedCheck the WordPress plugins directory or wp-admin for the pixelgrade Category Icon plugin. Look in wp-content/plugins/ for a folder named 'category-icon' or similar.Affected if The plugin folder exists in the WordPress installation
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Determine installed plugin versionOpen the main plugin PHP file (usually category-icon.php) and locate the 'Version' header in the plugin comments, or check the readme.txt file.Affected if Version is at or below the unpatched release and cannot be compared to a fixed version
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Identify XML processing functionalitySearch plugin files for XML parsing functions (simplexml_load_file, xml_parse, SimpleXMLElement, DOMDocument::loadXML) or features that accept XML uploads/imports (import, xml, upload in function names).Affected if The plugin contains code that parses XML input without disabling external entity processing
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Confirm XML feature is accessibleCheck if the XML parsing functionality is exposed via an admin page, REST API endpoint, or front-end form. Look for admin menu entries or AJAX handlers related to category icon import/settings.Affected if An XML import or settings feature is available to users or unauthenticated attackers
The environment is affected if the Category Icon plugin is installed, contains vulnerable XML processing code, and the XML feature is accessible without proper XXE protections.
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.
dbcve · scopedUpdate the Category Icon plugin to the latest patched version once released, or disable the plugin if no patch is available; implement XML parser hardening to disable external entity processing.
Latest version available from vendor (beyond 1.0.3)
- Check the WordPress plugin repository or contact Pixelgrade support to confirm the latest available version of the Category Icon plugin
- Update the Category Icon plugin to the latest version available from the WordPress plugin repository or vendor
- Verify the update was successful by confirming the new version number
- If no fixed version is available, consider temporarily disabling the Category Icon plugin until a patched version is released
- Review other plugins for similar XXE vulnerabilities and ensure they are also updated
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-31039 — 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-2025-31039 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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