CVE-2025-0688 is a reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability identified in the Spiritual Gifts Survey WordPress plugin (including the optional S.H.A.P.E survey component) up to version 0.9.10. The vulnerability arises because the plugin fails to properly sanitize and escape user-supplied input parameters before reflecting them back in the webpage output. This lack of input validation allows an attacker to inject malicious scripts that execute in the context of the victim's browser. The vulnerability specifically affects unauthenticated users, meaning that an attacker can craft a malicious URL containing the payload and trick users into visiting it, leading to script execution without requiring any login or elevated privileges. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 6.1 (medium severity), with the vector indicating network attack vector (AV:N), low attack complexity (AC:L), no privileges required (PR:N), user interaction required (UI:R), scope changed (S:C), and impacts on confidentiality and integrity (C:L/I:L) but no impact on availability (A:N). The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation) and CWE-352 (Cross-Site Request Forgery), suggesting that the issue may also have implications for CSRF, although the primary concern is reflected XSS. There are no known exploits in the wild at the time of publication, and no patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability affects only the specific WordPress plugin, which is a niche product likely used by religious organizations or communities conducting spiritual gifts assessments via WordPress sites. Given the reflected nature of the XSS, exploitation requires user interaction, typically through social engineering to lure victims to malicious URLs. The scope is limited to the plugin's user-facing pages where the vulnerable parameter is reflected.

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability depends largely on the presence and use of the Spiritual Gifts Survey plugin on their WordPress sites. Organizations in the religious, community, or non-profit sectors that use this plugin to engage with their audience could be targeted. Successful exploitation could lead to theft of session cookies, redirection to malicious sites, or execution of arbitrary scripts in users' browsers, potentially compromising user confidentiality and integrity of interactions. While the vulnerability does not directly affect availability, the reputational damage and loss of user trust could be significant, especially for organizations handling sensitive personal or spiritual data. Additionally, if attackers combine this XSS with social engineering, they could conduct phishing or deliver malware payloads. The reflected XSS nature limits the attack to users who click on crafted links, so the impact is somewhat contained but still notable. European data protection regulations such as GDPR could impose liabilities if user data is compromised through exploitation of this vulnerability. Therefore, organizations must assess their exposure and remediate promptly to avoid compliance risks and protect user data.

1. Immediate mitigation involves disabling or removing the Spiritual Gifts Survey plugin until a patch is available. 2. If removal is not feasible, implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block suspicious input patterns targeting the vulnerable parameter. 3. Employ Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to restrict script execution sources, mitigating the impact of injected scripts. 4. Educate users and administrators about the risks of clicking on untrusted links, especially those purporting to be related to the organization’s surveys or spiritual content. 5. Monitor web server logs for unusual query parameters or repeated attempts to exploit reflected XSS. 6. Upon availability, promptly apply vendor patches or updates addressing the vulnerability. 7. Conduct a security review of all WordPress plugins to ensure they follow secure coding practices, including proper input validation and output encoding. 8. Consider implementing HTTP-only and secure flags on cookies to reduce session hijacking risks from XSS. 9. For organizations with development capabilities, consider patching the plugin source code by adding proper sanitization and escaping of all user inputs before output.