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

CVE-2025-46520

HIGH · 7.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-04-24
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
78/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges

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
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in alphasis Related Posts via Taxonomies related-posts-via-taxonomies allows Stored XSS.This issue affects Related Posts via Taxonomies: from n/a through <= 1.0.1.

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 confidence

A CSRF vulnerability in the Related Posts via Taxonomies WordPress plugin allows attackers to trick authenticated administrators into performing unintended actions that result in stored XSS. The lack of proper nonce validation on plugin settings or content-saving functions enables attackers to forge requests that inject malicious JavaScript into the database, which then executes when other users view the affected content.

MitigationImplement anti-CSRF tokens (nonces) on all state-changing operations and ensure all user-supplied data is properly sanitized before storage and escaped on output. Update to the latest plugin version if available.

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 checks

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

  1. Confirm plugin installation and activation status
    Log into WordPress admin panel, navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins, and look for 'Related Posts via Taxonomies' in the list. Check if it shows as 'Active'. Alternatively, check the filesystem at wp-content/plugins/ for a directory named 'related-posts-via-taxonomies' or similar.
    Affected if The plugin is installed and active on the WordPress site.
  2. Identify installed plugin version
    In WordPress admin, click on the plugin from the plugins list to view details including version number. Or open the main plugin PHP file (usually in the plugin root directory) and look for the 'Version' header in the plugin comment block.
    Affected if The installed version is lower than the latest available version from the WordPress plugin repository.
  3. Verify nonce implementation in plugin code
    Access the plugin files via FTP or file manager. Locate files that handle settings or content saving (typically functions.php or files with 'save', 'update', 'settings' in the name). Open these files and search for 'wp_verify_nonce' or 'check_admin_referer' calls. Check if these nonce verification functions are called before any database insert/update operations.
    Affected if No nonce verification functions are found before data-saving operations, or nonce checks are missing entirely.
  4. Inspect data sanitization on input
    In the plugin PHP files that handle user input (settings forms, admin submissions), look for sanitization functions like sanitize_text_field, esc_attr, or wp_kses before data is saved to the database. Check the save handlers for these functions.
    Affected if User-supplied data is saved to the database without sanitization functions, or sanitization is inconsistent/missing.
  5. Check for stored XSS in plugin output
    Examine files that display related posts content (typically template files or output functions). Look for data being echoed without escaping functions like esc_html, esc_attr, or esc_url. Search for instances where taxonomy terms or post data are output directly.
    Affected if Plugin output functions echo stored data without proper escaping functions, allowing stored XSS to execute.

The site is affected if the Related Posts via Taxonomies plugin is active, lacks proper nonce validation on admin actions, and does not sanitize/escape data properly, allowing forged admin requests to inject persistent malicious scripts.

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

Implement anti-CSRF tokens (nonces) on all state-changing operations and ensure all user-supplied data is properly sanitized before storage and escaped on output. Update to the latest plugin version if available.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
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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-2025-46520 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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