CVE-2025-48340 is a critical Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified in the Danny Vink User Profile Meta Manager plugin, affecting versions up to 1.02. CSRF vulnerabilities allow an attacker to trick an authenticated user into submitting a forged HTTP request, which the vulnerable application processes as a legitimate action. In this case, the vulnerability enables privilege escalation, meaning an attacker can leverage the CSRF flaw to gain higher-level permissions or administrative control within the affected system without proper authorization. The CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 reflects the severity, indicating that the vulnerability is remotely exploitable (AV:N), requires no privileges (PR:N), and no user interaction (UI:N), with a scope unchanged (S:U). The impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability is high (C:H/I:H/A:H), meaning an attacker can fully compromise the system's data and functionality. The vulnerability affects the User Profile Meta Manager plugin, which is typically used in WordPress environments to manage user profile metadata. The lack of available patches at the time of publication increases the risk for organizations using this plugin. Although no known exploits are reported in the wild yet, the critical nature and ease of exploitation make it a significant threat. The vulnerability was assigned and published by Patchstack and CISA-enriched, indicating recognition by authoritative cybersecurity entities.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a substantial risk, especially for those relying on WordPress sites utilizing the User Profile Meta Manager plugin. Successful exploitation can lead to unauthorized privilege escalation, allowing attackers to manipulate user profiles, access sensitive data, or even take full control of the affected web application. This can result in data breaches, defacement, or use of compromised sites as a pivot point for further attacks within the corporate network. Given the high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact, organizations could face severe operational disruptions, reputational damage, and regulatory penalties under GDPR if personal data is compromised. The remote and unauthenticated nature of the exploit increases the attack surface, making it easier for threat actors to target vulnerable systems across Europe without requiring user interaction or credentials.

Immediate mitigation steps include disabling or removing the User Profile Meta Manager plugin until a security patch is released. Organizations should monitor official channels for updates or patches from the vendor. Implementing Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) with rules to detect and block CSRF attempts targeting this plugin can provide temporary protection. Additionally, enforcing strict Content Security Policies (CSP) and SameSite cookie attributes can reduce CSRF risks. Conduct thorough audits of user permissions and logs to detect any suspicious activities indicative of exploitation attempts. For long-term mitigation, organizations should adopt a defense-in-depth approach by regularly updating all plugins, applying the principle of least privilege to user roles, and educating administrators about CSRF risks. Finally, integrating automated vulnerability scanning tools that include checks for this plugin can help identify vulnerable instances proactively.