NewsBlogger <= 0.2.5.6 - 0.2.5.9 - Cross-Site Request Forgery to Arbitrary Plugin Installation
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 0.2.6
- Affected Theme
- NewsBlogger
- Affected Version
0.2.5.6 – 0.2.5.9- CVSS
- 8.8High
- Weakness type
- CWE-352 · Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
- CVE
CVE-2025-12821
At a glance
CVE-2025-12821 is a high-severity Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the NewsBlogger WordPress theme, affecting versions 0.2.5.6 – 0.2.5.9. It carries a CVSS score of 8.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 0.2.6; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed February 2026, reported by lucky_buddy.
Vulnerability Overview
The NewsBlogger theme for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in versions 0.2.5.6 to 0.2.5.9. This is due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on the newsblogger_install_and_activate_plugin() function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to upload arbitrary files and achieve remote code execution via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link. This is due to a reverted fix of CVE-2025-1305.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no privileges on the target site. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-352: Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
NewsBlogger 0.2.5.6 – 0.2.5.9 carries this weakness at newsblogger_install_and_activate_plugin(), and reaching it takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. Cross-site request forgery abuses the fact that browsers attach a victim's cookies to any request, so a state-changing action that only checks who you are, not whether you meant to act, can be triggered from another site.
An attacker who gets a logged-in user to load a crafted page can perform that action as them, with the impact scaling to whatever the victim's role is allowed to do. For NewsBlogger the fix is 0.2.6: builds 0.2.5.6 – 0.2.5.9 are affected, anything from 0.2.6 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 0.2.6, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
The attempt arrives as an ordinary request to NewsBlogger: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. None of that substitutes for the fix: NewsBlogger 0.2.6 closes this, and updating the theme is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in NewsBlogger
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