CVE-2025-14164 identifies a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Quran Gateway plugin developed by edckwt for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 1.5. The root cause is the absence of nonce validation within the quran_gateway_options function, which is responsible for handling plugin display settings. Nonces in WordPress are security tokens used to verify that requests originate from legitimate users and not from malicious third parties. Without this validation, attackers can craft malicious URLs or forms that, when visited or submitted by an authenticated administrator, cause unintended changes to the plugin's configuration. This vulnerability does not require the attacker to be authenticated but does require the victim to have administrative privileges and to interact with the malicious request, typically by clicking a link. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 4.3 (medium), reflecting the low impact on confidentiality and availability but moderate impact on integrity due to unauthorized configuration changes. The attack vector is network-based with low attack complexity and no privileges required, but user interaction is mandatory. No patches or exploit code are currently publicly available, and no active exploitation has been reported. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-352, which covers CSRF attacks that exploit the trust a site places in a user's browser. This vulnerability can undermine site integrity by allowing attackers to alter plugin settings, potentially affecting site appearance or behavior.

The primary impact of CVE-2025-14164 is the unauthorized modification of the Quran Gateway plugin's display settings, which can affect the integrity of the website's content presentation. While this does not directly compromise sensitive data confidentiality or site availability, it can lead to misinformation, defacement, or user confusion, especially given the religious nature of the plugin. For organizations, this could damage reputation, reduce user trust, and potentially violate compliance if content integrity is mandated. Since the vulnerability requires an administrator to be tricked into clicking a malicious link, the risk is somewhat mitigated by user awareness but remains significant in environments with less security training. The scope is limited to WordPress sites using this specific plugin, which may be niche but globally distributed. No known active exploitation reduces immediate risk, but the vulnerability remains exploitable if weaponized. Attackers could use this vector as a foothold for further attacks or social engineering campaigns targeting site administrators.

To mitigate CVE-2025-14164, site administrators should first check for and apply any official patches or updates from the edckwt Quran Gateway plugin developer once available. In the absence of patches, administrators can implement manual nonce validation in the quran_gateway_options function by adding WordPress nonce checks (e.g., using wp_verify_nonce) to ensure requests are legitimate and originate from authorized users. Additionally, administrators should enforce strict user access controls, limiting administrative privileges to trusted personnel only. Educating administrators about the risks of clicking unsolicited links and implementing web application firewalls (WAFs) that detect and block CSRF attempts can further reduce risk. Employing Content Security Policy (CSP) headers and SameSite cookie attributes can also help mitigate CSRF risks. Regular security audits and monitoring for unusual configuration changes can help detect exploitation attempts early. Finally, disabling or removing the plugin if it is not essential reduces the attack surface.