CVE-2025-9861: 
WordPress vulnerability analysis and mitigation

The ThemeLoom Widgets plugin for WordPress contains a Stored Cross-Site Scripting vulnerability (CVE-2025-9861) discovered and disclosed on September 11, 2025. The vulnerability affects all versions up to and including 1.8.5. The plugin's 'los_showposts' shortcode is affected due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on user-supplied attributes (NVD).

The vulnerability is classified as a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) issue, identified as CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation). The CVSS v3.1 base score is 6.4 (Medium), with the following vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N. The vulnerability exists in the plugin's 'los_showposts' shortcode functionality where user input is not properly sanitized before being stored and displayed (NVD, Wordfence).

The vulnerability allows authenticated attackers with contributor-level access or higher to inject arbitrary web scripts into pages. These malicious scripts will execute whenever a user accesses the compromised page, potentially leading to theft of sensitive information or manipulation of page content (NVD).

Users should update to a version newer than 1.8.5 once available. Until then, it is recommended to restrict access to the contributor role and carefully monitor user activities with such privileges (NVD).