CVE-2025-14158 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified in the Coding Blocks plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 1.1.0. The root cause is the absence of nonce validation on the settings update functionality, a security mechanism designed to verify that requests 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 an authenticated site administrator, triggers unauthorized changes to the plugin’s settings, including theme configurations. This attack vector requires no prior authentication by the attacker but depends on social engineering to induce the administrator to perform an action, such as clicking a link. The vulnerability impacts the integrity of the plugin’s configuration but does not affect confidentiality or availability directly. The CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N) reflects network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, user interaction required, unchanged scope, no confidentiality or availability impact, and limited integrity impact. No patches or known exploits are currently available, but the risk remains due to the potential for unauthorized configuration changes that could be leveraged for further exploitation or site disruption. The vulnerability is cataloged under CWE-352, a common web security weakness related to CSRF attacks.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to the integrity of WordPress sites using the Coding Blocks plugin. Unauthorized changes to plugin settings could lead to misconfigurations that degrade site functionality or open avenues for additional attacks, such as privilege escalation or persistent malicious code injection. Although the direct impact on confidentiality and availability is minimal, the integrity compromise can undermine trust in affected websites, potentially damaging brand reputation and user confidence. Organizations in sectors with high reliance on WordPress for public-facing or internal sites—such as media, education, and small-to-medium enterprises—may face operational disruptions or increased remediation costs. Furthermore, if attackers leverage this vulnerability as a foothold, it could facilitate broader attacks against European digital infrastructure. Given the requirement for administrator interaction, the threat level depends on user awareness and security hygiene, which varies across organizations.

To mitigate this vulnerability, European organizations should immediately update the Coding Blocks plugin to a version that includes nonce validation once available. In the absence of an official patch, administrators can implement manual nonce checks in the plugin’s settings update handlers to verify request authenticity. Additionally, organizations should enforce strict user access controls, limiting administrator privileges to trusted personnel only. Employing Content Security Policy (CSP) headers and SameSite cookie attributes can reduce CSRF risks by restricting cross-origin requests. Security awareness training should emphasize the dangers of clicking unsolicited links, especially for users with administrative privileges. Regular monitoring of plugin settings for unauthorized changes and implementing Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with CSRF detection capabilities can provide additional layers of defense. Finally, organizations should maintain up-to-date backups to recover quickly from any unauthorized changes.