CVE-2025-15463 hwk-fr CVE debrief

Who should care

Defenders responsible for WordPress installations with the Advanced Custom Fields: Extended plugin should assess exposure and prioritize patching or mitigation. This includes operators, platform administrators, vulnerability management teams, and security teams who need to verify affected scope and apply patches or updates to prevent exploitation.

Why it matters

CVE-2025-15463 is a medium-severity vulnerability in the Advanced Custom Fields: Extended plugin for WordPress, allowing unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary shortcodes. Defenders should prioritize verifying plugin versions and applying patches to prevent exploitation.

• Unauthenticated attackers may execute arbitrary shortcodes.
• Defenders must verify plugin versions and apply patches.
• Monitoring for exploitation attempts is necessary.

Technical summary

The Advanced Custom Fields: Extended plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary shortcode execution in all versions up to, and including, 0.9.2.3. This is due to the software allowing users to execute an action that does not properly validate a value before running do_shortcode. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary shortcodes. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 6.5 and is considered medium-severity. Defenders should prioritize verifying plugin versions and applying patches to prevent exploitation.

Defensive priority

Defenders should prioritize verifying the version of the Advanced Custom Fields: Extended plugin and applying patches or updates to prevent exploitation.

Recommended defensive actions

• Verify the version of the Advanced Custom Fields: Extended plugin and apply patches or updates to prevent exploitation.
• Monitor for potential exploitation attempts.
• Review and update incident response plans to address potential attacks.
• Review compensating controls for exposed systems while remediation is scheduled and verified.
• Check relevant monitoring, detection, and logs for exposed assets that need extra review.
• Track exceptions, retest remediated assets, and close the item only after evidence is documented.
• Confirm whether affected product deployments exist in managed environments and assign an owner for follow-up.

Evidence notes

The CVE record and NVD entry provide details on the vulnerability, including its description and CVSS score. The Advanced Custom Fields: Extended plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary shortcode execution in all versions up to, and including, 0.9.2.3. This is due to the software allowing users to execute an action that does not properly validate a value before running do_shortcode. The vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary shortcodes. Evidence is limited to public CVE and NVD records.

Sources and references

Methodology and review provenance

AI-assisted synthesis based on stored public vulnerability evidence. System validation, approval state, and publication status do not by themselves establish human review of this revision. PatchSiren helps prioritize defensive review and does not prove exposure or remediation on any system.