CVE-2025-13682 is a stored cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability identified in the Trail Manager plugin for WordPress, developed by phegman. This vulnerability arises from improper neutralization of input during web page generation (CWE-79), specifically due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping in the plugin's admin settings interface. It affects all versions up to and including 1.0.0. The flaw allows an authenticated attacker with administrator-level permissions or higher to inject arbitrary JavaScript code into pages managed by the plugin. These scripts execute whenever any user accesses the compromised page, potentially leading to session hijacking, privilege escalation, or other malicious activities within the WordPress environment. Notably, the vulnerability only manifests in multi-site WordPress installations or in single-site setups where the unfiltered_html capability is disabled, limiting the scope of impact. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 4.4, reflecting a medium severity level, with the vector indicating network attack vector (AV:N), high attack complexity (AC:H), high privileges required (PR:H), no user interaction (UI:N), and a scope change (S:C). The impact primarily affects confidentiality and integrity, with no direct availability impact. No public exploits are currently known, and no patches have been officially released at the time of publication. The vulnerability was reserved on November 25, 2025, and published on December 5, 2025. Given the nature of the vulnerability, exploitation requires administrative access, which reduces the likelihood of widespread exploitation but increases risk within compromised administrative environments.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-13682 depends largely on their use of the Trail Manager plugin within WordPress multi-site environments or configurations with unfiltered_html disabled. Successful exploitation could allow attackers with admin privileges to inject malicious scripts that execute in the context of other users, potentially leading to session hijacking, data theft, or unauthorized actions performed on behalf of legitimate users. This compromises the confidentiality and integrity of the affected systems and data. While availability is not directly impacted, the trustworthiness of the affected WordPress sites could be undermined, leading to reputational damage. Organizations with large WordPress deployments, especially those managing multiple sites from a single installation, face increased risk. The requirement for high privileges limits the threat to environments where administrative credentials are already compromised or insufficiently protected. Nonetheless, the vulnerability could be leveraged as part of a broader attack chain, especially in targeted attacks against organizations with valuable data or critical web infrastructure.

1. Restrict administrative access strictly to trusted personnel and enforce strong authentication mechanisms such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) to reduce the risk of credential compromise. 2. Monitor and audit administrative activities within WordPress, focusing on changes to plugin settings and suspicious script injections. 3. Apply strict input validation and output escaping in custom or third-party plugins, including Trail Manager, to prevent injection of malicious scripts. 4. Disable or limit the use of multi-site WordPress installations where possible, or ensure that unfiltered_html capabilities are carefully managed and restricted. 5. Regularly update WordPress core and plugins; although no patch is currently available for this vulnerability, monitor vendor advisories for forthcoming fixes. 6. Employ Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with rules designed to detect and block XSS payloads targeting admin interfaces. 7. Conduct security awareness training for administrators to recognize phishing and social engineering attempts that could lead to credential theft. 8. Consider isolating critical WordPress instances or using containerization to limit the blast radius of potential attacks exploiting this vulnerability.