CVE-2025-9374 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting the Ultimate Tag Warrior Importer plugin for WordPress, developed by briancolinger. This vulnerability exists in all versions up to and including 0.2 due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on a specific function responsible for importing tags. Nonce validation is a security mechanism used to ensure that requests made to a web application are intentional and originate from legitimate users. The absence or improper implementation of this validation allows an unauthenticated attacker to craft malicious requests that can be executed by tricking a site administrator into clicking a specially crafted link or visiting a malicious webpage. Once the administrator performs the action, the attacker can import tags into the WordPress site without authorization. The vulnerability has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 4.3, categorized as medium severity. The attack vector is network-based (AV:N), requires no privileges (PR:N), but does require user interaction (UI:R), specifically the administrator being tricked into performing the action. The impact is limited to integrity (I:L), with no impact on confidentiality or availability. There are no known exploits in the wild at the time of publication, and no patches have been released yet. This vulnerability is classified under CWE-352, which covers CSRF issues where state-changing requests can be forged by attackers due to missing or incorrect anti-CSRF tokens.

For European organizations using WordPress sites with the Ultimate Tag Warrior Importer plugin, this vulnerability poses a risk primarily to the integrity of website content. An attacker could manipulate the tags associated with content, potentially affecting site organization, SEO, or content categorization. While this does not directly compromise sensitive data confidentiality or site availability, it can undermine trust in the website’s content management and may facilitate further attacks if combined with other vulnerabilities. The requirement for an administrator to be tricked into clicking a malicious link means social engineering is a key component, which can be mitigated with user awareness. However, compromised tag data could indirectly impact business operations, marketing efforts, or user experience. Given the widespread use of WordPress in Europe, especially among SMEs and content-driven organizations, the vulnerability could affect a significant number of sites if the plugin is in use. The lack of a patch increases exposure until mitigations are applied.

1. Immediate mitigation should include disabling or uninstalling the Ultimate Tag Warrior Importer plugin until a patch is available. 2. Implement strict administrative user training focused on recognizing phishing and social engineering attempts to reduce the risk of administrators clicking malicious links. 3. Employ web application firewalls (WAFs) that can detect and block suspicious CSRF attack patterns or anomalous requests targeting the plugin’s import functionality. 4. Monitor WordPress site logs for unusual tag import activities or unexpected POST requests to the plugin’s endpoints. 5. Consider applying custom nonce validation or CSRF protection mechanisms at the web server or application level if feasible. 6. Keep WordPress core and all plugins updated, and subscribe to vulnerability advisories for timely patching once available. 7. Limit administrative access to trusted networks or VPNs to reduce exposure to external CSRF attempts. 8. Use Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to restrict the sources of executable scripts and reduce the risk of cross-site attacks.