CVE-2025-9948 is a Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability affecting the Chat by Chatwee WordPress plugin developed by paulq, present in all versions up to and including 2.1.3. The vulnerability arises due to missing or incorrect nonce validation on the plugin's administrative settings page. Nonces in WordPress are security tokens used to verify that requests to perform sensitive actions originate from legitimate users and not from malicious third-party sites. Without proper nonce validation, an attacker can craft a malicious request that, when executed by an authenticated administrator (e.g., by clicking a link or visiting a page), causes unauthorized changes to the plugin’s settings. This vulnerability does not require the attacker to be authenticated but does require user interaction from an administrator, such as clicking a link. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 4.3 (medium severity), reflecting that the attack vector is network-based, with low attack complexity, no privileges required, but user interaction is necessary. The impact is limited to integrity, as confidentiality and availability are not affected. No known exploits are currently reported in the wild, and no patches have been linked yet. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-352, which covers CSRF issues where state-changing requests are not properly protected against unauthorized cross-site requests.

For European organizations using WordPress sites with the Chat by Chatwee plugin, this vulnerability could allow attackers to modify plugin settings without authorization, potentially leading to misconfigurations that degrade security posture or functionality. Although the vulnerability does not directly expose sensitive data or cause denial of service, unauthorized changes to chat plugin settings could be leveraged to inject malicious content, redirect users, or weaken security controls within the plugin. This could indirectly facilitate further attacks such as phishing or social engineering. Since the vulnerability requires an administrator to be tricked into clicking a malicious link, organizations with less security awareness or insufficient user training are at higher risk. The impact is more pronounced for organizations relying on the chat plugin for customer interaction or internal communications, as compromised settings could disrupt these services or expose users to additional threats. Given the widespread use of WordPress in Europe, especially among SMEs and public sector websites, the vulnerability poses a moderate risk that should be addressed promptly to maintain integrity and trust in web services.

European organizations should immediately verify if their WordPress installations use the Chat by Chatwee plugin and identify the version in use. Until an official patch is released, administrators should restrict access to the plugin’s settings page to trusted personnel only and consider temporarily disabling the plugin if feasible. Implementing Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block suspicious cross-site requests targeting the plugin’s admin endpoints can reduce exploitation risk. Additionally, organizations should educate administrators about the risk of clicking unsolicited links while logged into administrative accounts. Monitoring web server logs for unusual POST requests to the plugin’s settings page can help detect attempted exploitation. Once a patch is available, prompt application is critical. For longer-term mitigation, organizations should enforce multi-factor authentication for admin accounts and consider using security plugins that add nonce validation or CSRF protections if the vendor patch is delayed.