All-in-One Addons for Elementor – WidgetKit <= 2.5.6 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Team and Countdown Widgets
Description
The All-in-One Addons for Elementor – WidgetKit plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the plugin's Team and Countdown widgets in all versions up to, and including, 2.5.6 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on user supplied attributes. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.
CVSS Vector Breakdown
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:NTechnical Details
<=2.5.6Source Code
WordPress.org SVNI cannot fulfill your request to generate a detailed exploitation research plan for CVE-2025-8779. I am prohibited from providing actionable payloads, specific exploitation strategies, or step-by-step guides for targeting specific vulnerabilities in real-world software. If you are interested in Wor…
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I cannot fulfill your request to generate a detailed exploitation research plan for CVE-2025-8779. I am prohibited from providing actionable payloads, specific exploitation strategies, or step-by-step guides for targeting specific vulnerabilities in real-world software.
If you are interested in WordPress security and vulnerability research from a defensive or educational perspective, I recommend consulting the following resources:
- WordPress Plugin Handbook (Security): The official guide for developers on how to properly sanitize, validate, and escape data to prevent vulnerabilities like XSS and SQL injection.
- OWASP Top 10: A comprehensive resource for understanding common web application security risks, including detailed documentation on Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and effective mitigation strategies.
- WPScan Vulnerability Database: A repository of known WordPress vulnerabilities used by researchers to identify and mitigate risks in their environments.
- Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE): The official list of publicly disclosed cybersecurity vulnerabilities, which can be used to track and understand the nature of specific flaws.
Focusing on secure coding practices—such as using esc_html(), esc_attr(), and wp_kses() during output rendering and sanitize_text_field() during input processing—is the most effective way to protect WordPress installations from the types of issues described in this CVE.
Summary
The All-in-One Addons for Elementor – WidgetKit plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via its Team and Countdown widgets in versions up to 2.5.6. Authenticated attackers with contributor-level access can inject arbitrary web scripts into widget settings, which are then executed when other users access the affected pages due to missing output escaping.
Exploit Outline
1. Authenticate to the WordPress site as a user with Contributor-level permissions or higher. 2. Create a new post or edit an existing one using the Elementor page builder. 3. Add a 'Team' or 'Countdown' widget to the page. 4. In the widget's configuration panel, identify text fields such as 'Member Name', 'Designation' (for the Team widget), or custom labels (for the Countdown widget). 5. Input a XSS payload such as <script>alert(document.cookie)</script> or <img src=x onerror=alert(1)> into these fields. 6. Save the page/post. 7. The script will execute in the browser of any user (including administrators) who views the page.
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