The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-14852 affects the antevenio MDirector Newsletter plugin for WordPress, specifically all versions up to and including 4.5.8. This vulnerability is classified as a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) issue, categorized under CWE-352. The root cause is the absence of nonce verification in the mdirectorNewsletterSave function, which is responsible for saving the plugin's settings. Nonce verification is a security mechanism used in WordPress to ensure that requests made to perform sensitive actions originate from legitimate users and not from forged requests. Due to this missing verification, an attacker can craft a malicious request that, if executed by an authenticated administrator (for example, by clicking a specially crafted link), will cause the plugin's settings to be altered without the administrator's consent. The vulnerability does not require the attacker to be authenticated, but it does require user interaction from an administrator, making exploitation less straightforward but still feasible. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 4.3, indicating 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), unchanged scope (S:U), no confidentiality impact (C:N), low integrity impact (I:L), and no availability impact (A:N). No public exploits have been reported so far. The vulnerability could allow unauthorized changes to plugin configurations, potentially leading to further security issues or disruption of newsletter functionality.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a moderate risk primarily to the integrity of their WordPress sites using the MDirector Newsletter plugin. Unauthorized changes to plugin settings could disrupt newsletter operations, potentially leading to misinformation or loss of control over communication channels. While confidentiality and availability are not directly impacted, the integrity compromise could be leveraged for further attacks, such as injecting malicious content or redirecting newsletter recipients. Organizations relying on newsletters for customer engagement, marketing, or internal communications could suffer reputational damage or operational inefficiencies. The requirement for administrator interaction limits the attack scope but does not eliminate risk, especially in environments where phishing or social engineering attacks are prevalent. Given the widespread use of WordPress in Europe, especially in small and medium enterprises, this vulnerability could affect a significant number of organizations if unaddressed.

To mitigate this vulnerability, organizations should first verify if they use the antevenio MDirector Newsletter plugin and identify the version in use. Immediate steps include updating the plugin to a version that includes nonce verification once available. In the absence of an official patch, administrators can implement manual nonce checks in the mdirectorNewsletterSave function or apply web application firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block suspicious POST requests targeting this function. Restricting administrative access to trusted networks and enforcing multi-factor authentication (MFA) for WordPress admin accounts can reduce the risk of exploitation. Additionally, educating administrators about the risks of clicking on unsolicited links and implementing email filtering to reduce phishing attempts will help prevent the user interaction needed for exploitation. Regular monitoring of plugin settings and audit logs can help detect unauthorized changes early. Finally, organizations should maintain a robust backup strategy to restore plugin configurations if tampering occurs.