CVE-2025-46251 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting the VikRestaurants Table Reservations and Take-Away plugin developed by e4jvikwp, specifically versions up to 1.3.3. CSRF vulnerabilities occur when an attacker tricks an authenticated user into submitting a forged request to a web application in which they are currently authenticated, thereby performing unwanted actions on behalf of the user without their consent. In this case, the vulnerability allows attackers to exploit the reservation and take-away management functionalities of the VikRestaurants plugin by sending crafted requests that the application processes as legitimate. Since the plugin handles table reservations and take-away orders, successful exploitation could lead to unauthorized modifications such as creating, modifying, or canceling reservations or orders. This could disrupt restaurant operations, cause financial losses, or degrade customer trust. The vulnerability does not require user interaction beyond the victim being authenticated and visiting a malicious site, making exploitation relatively straightforward. No public exploits have been reported yet, and no patches have been released at the time of this analysis. The vulnerability is categorized under CWE-352, which highlights the lack of proper anti-CSRF protections such as tokens or same-site cookie attributes. The plugin is commonly used in restaurant websites to manage bookings and orders, often integrated into content management systems like Joomla or WordPress, which increases the attack surface if those CMS instances are exposed. The medium severity rating reflects the moderate impact potential and ease of exploitation without authentication bypass but does not indicate immediate critical system compromise or data exfiltration.

For European organizations, particularly those in the hospitality and restaurant sectors using the VikRestaurants plugin, this vulnerability could lead to operational disruptions. Attackers could manipulate reservation data, causing double bookings, cancellations, or fraudulent orders, which may result in revenue loss and reputational damage. Additionally, unauthorized changes could confuse staff and customers, leading to poor service experiences. While the vulnerability does not directly expose sensitive customer data, the integrity of booking and order information is compromised. This could indirectly affect customer trust and compliance with data protection regulations if service disruptions lead to complaints or data mishandling. Organizations relying heavily on online reservation systems are at higher risk, especially if they lack additional security controls such as web application firewalls or strict session management. The absence of known exploits suggests a window of opportunity for proactive mitigation before active attacks emerge.

1. Implement Anti-CSRF Tokens: Developers and site administrators should ensure that the VikRestaurants plugin is updated to a version that includes proper CSRF protections, such as synchronizer tokens or double-submit cookies. If no patch is available, consider applying custom patches or workarounds to add CSRF tokens to all state-changing requests. 2. Enforce SameSite Cookie Attributes: Configure session cookies with the 'SameSite' attribute set to 'Strict' or 'Lax' to reduce the risk of CSRF by restricting cross-origin requests. 3. Restrict HTTP Methods: Limit sensitive operations to POST requests and verify the HTTP method server-side to prevent exploitation via GET requests. 4. Use Web Application Firewalls (WAF): Deploy and configure WAFs to detect and block suspicious CSRF attack patterns targeting the plugin endpoints. 5. Monitor and Audit Logs: Regularly review web server and application logs for unusual reservation or order activities that could indicate exploitation attempts. 6. Educate Users: Inform authenticated users about the risks of visiting untrusted websites while logged into the restaurant management system. 7. Isolate Critical Systems: Where possible, restrict access to the reservation management interface to trusted networks or VPNs to reduce exposure. 8. Backup Data: Maintain regular backups of reservation and order data to enable recovery in case of malicious modifications.