The denishua Top Friends plugin for WordPress suffers from a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-12827. This vulnerability exists in all versions up to and including 0.3 due to the absence of nonce validation in the function top_friends_options_subpanel(). Nonce validation is a security mechanism used in WordPress to ensure that requests made to change settings originate from legitimate users and not from forged requests. Without this protection, an attacker can craft a malicious link or webpage that, when visited by a site administrator, causes the administrator's browser to send unauthorized requests to the WordPress site. These requests can modify plugin settings without the administrator's explicit consent. The vulnerability requires no prior authentication, but it does require the administrator to interact with the malicious content (e.g., clicking a link). The CVSS 3.1 base score is 4.3, reflecting low complexity and no privileges required, but user interaction is necessary. The impact is limited to integrity, as attackers cannot directly access or disrupt data confidentiality or availability. No patches or exploit code are currently publicly available, and no active exploitation has been reported. This vulnerability highlights the importance of nonce validation in WordPress plugin development to prevent CSRF attacks.

For European organizations using the denishua Top Friends plugin, this vulnerability poses a risk of unauthorized modification of plugin settings, which could lead to misconfiguration, potential privilege escalation, or enabling further attacks if the plugin controls critical functionality. Although it does not directly compromise data confidentiality or availability, altered settings could weaken site security or user experience. Organizations with WordPress sites that rely on this plugin should consider the risk of administrative account compromise through social engineering or phishing, as the attack requires administrator interaction. The impact is more significant for organizations with high-value or sensitive WordPress deployments, such as government, financial, or media sectors in Europe. Additionally, the risk is heightened in environments where administrators have broad privileges and where plugin settings influence site behavior or security posture.

1. Immediately audit WordPress sites for the presence of the denishua Top Friends plugin and identify affected versions (up to 0.3). 2. Disable or uninstall the plugin if it is not essential to reduce attack surface. 3. If the plugin is required, monitor for updates or patches from the vendor that implement nonce validation and apply them promptly. 4. Educate WordPress administrators about the risks of clicking unknown or suspicious links, especially while logged into administrative accounts. 5. Implement web application firewalls (WAFs) with rules to detect and block CSRF attack patterns targeting WordPress admin endpoints. 6. Enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for WordPress administrator accounts to reduce the risk of account compromise. 7. Regularly review and restrict administrator privileges to the minimum necessary. 8. Monitor logs for unusual changes in plugin settings or administrative actions that could indicate exploitation attempts.