CVE-2025-53316 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability identified in the WP GDPR Cookie Consent plugin developed by Shahjahan Jewel, affecting all versions up to and including 1.0.0. The vulnerability allows an attacker to trick authenticated users into executing unwanted actions on their behalf without their consent, leveraging the lack of proper CSRF protections in the plugin. This can lead to stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks, where malicious scripts are injected and persist on the affected website, potentially compromising user sessions, stealing sensitive data, or defacing the site. The CVSS v3.1 score of 8.8 reflects the critical impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, with network attack vector, low attack complexity, no privileges required, but requiring user interaction. The vulnerability affects WordPress sites using this plugin to manage GDPR cookie consent, a common feature for European websites to comply with privacy regulations. Although no public exploits have been reported yet, the combination of CSRF and stored XSS makes this a potent threat that can be weaponized for widespread attacks. The vulnerability was reserved in June 2025 and published in November 2025, indicating recent discovery and disclosure. No official patches or updates are currently linked, emphasizing the need for immediate attention from site administrators.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk due to the widespread use of WordPress and the importance of GDPR compliance tools like WP GDPR Cookie Consent. Exploitation can lead to unauthorized actions performed on behalf of users, resulting in stored XSS that can compromise user data, steal authentication tokens, and enable further attacks such as privilege escalation or malware distribution. This threatens the confidentiality of personal data, violates GDPR mandates, and can cause reputational damage and regulatory penalties. Availability of websites can also be impacted through defacement or denial of service caused by injected scripts. The ease of exploitation without requiring authentication or privileges increases the attack surface, especially for organizations with many users or public-facing WordPress sites. The lack of current patches means many sites remain vulnerable, increasing the likelihood of exploitation once public exploits emerge.

1. Immediately monitor official Shahjahan Jewel and WordPress plugin repositories for patches or updates addressing CVE-2025-53316 and apply them as soon as they become available. 2. Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block CSRF and XSS attack patterns targeting the WP GDPR Cookie Consent plugin endpoints. 3. Review and harden CSRF protections in the plugin configuration or custom code, ensuring anti-CSRF tokens are validated on all state-changing requests. 4. Conduct regular security audits and penetration tests focusing on WordPress plugins, especially those handling user input and consent management. 5. Educate users and administrators about phishing and social engineering risks that could trigger CSRF attacks requiring user interaction. 6. Consider temporarily disabling or replacing the vulnerable plugin with alternative GDPR consent solutions until a secure version is released. 7. Monitor logs for unusual POST requests or suspicious activity related to the plugin’s functionality. 8. Employ Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to mitigate the impact of stored XSS by restricting script execution sources.