NVIDIA AI Toolkit and WordPress Plugins Hit with High-Severity Flaws
Vulnerabilities Disclosed in NVIDIA NeMo Agent and WordPress Plugins, Exposing Users to SSRF and XSS Attacks
CVE Identifiers
Full Report
Executive Summary
On November 25, 2025, security bulletins were released for several new software vulnerabilities affecting a range of products from NVIDIA's AI development tools to popular WordPress plugins. NVIDIA disclosed CVE-2025-33203, a high-severity Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in its NeMo Agent Toolkit, which could be exploited for information disclosure and denial of service. Simultaneously, the WordPress ecosystem was impacted by multiple flaws, including a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the "Just Highlight" plugin (CVE-2025-13311) and a sensitive information exposure flaw in the "Locker Content" plugin (CVE-2025-12525). These vulnerabilities create new risks for AI developers and website administrators, who are urged to apply the necessary updates.
Vulnerability Details
NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit - CVE-2025-33203
- CVE ID: CVE-2025-33203
- Affected Product: NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit UI for Web (all versions prior to 1.3.0)
- Vulnerability Type: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
- CVSS Score: 7.6 (High)
- Description: A flaw in the chat API endpoint allows an attacker to make the server perform arbitrary web requests on their behalf. This could be used to scan internal networks, access internal services, or cause a denial of service by forcing the server to connect to itself repeatedly.
- Remediation: Upgrade to version 1.3.0 or later.
WordPress "Just Highlight" Plugin - CVE-2025-13311
- CVE ID: CVE-2025-13311
- Affected Product: "Just Highlight" plugin (versions <= 1.0.3)
- Vulnerability Type: Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
- CVSS Score: 4.4 (Medium)
- Description: Insufficient input sanitization in the 'Highlight Color' setting allows an authenticated attacker with administrator-level access to inject a malicious script. This script would execute in the browser of any other administrator who accesses the plugin's settings page, potentially leading to session hijacking or further administrative actions.
- Remediation: Update to the latest version of the plugin.
WordPress "Locker Content" Plugin - CVE-2025-12525
- CVE ID: CVE-2025-12525
- Affected Product: "Locker Content" plugin (version 1.0.0)
- Vulnerability Type: Sensitive Information Exposure
- CVSS Score: 5.3 (Medium)
- Description: A flaw in an AJAX endpoint (
lockerco_submit_post) allows an unauthenticated attacker to bypass the plugin's content protection and extract the content of protected posts. - Remediation: Update to the latest version of the plugin.
Impact Assessment
- NVIDIA SSRF (CVE-2025-33203): The impact is significant for organizations using the NeMo Agent Toolkit. An attacker could map internal, non-public networks, interact with sensitive internal APIs, or exfiltrate data from cloud metadata services (e.g., AWS IMDS). This could be a stepping stone to a much larger compromise of the cloud environment.
- WordPress XSS (CVE-2025-13311): While requiring administrator privileges to exploit, this flaw could be used by a rogue admin to target other, higher-privileged admins, or to plant a persistent backdoor that survives password changes.
- WordPress Info Exposure (CVE-2025-12525): This flaw completely undermines the purpose of the "Locker Content" plugin. Website owners using it to protect premium or sensitive content could have that information stolen and publicly leaked by unauthenticated attackers.
Cyber Observables for Detection
- For CVE-2025-33203 (SSRF): Monitor logs of the NeMo Agent application for outbound requests to unexpected internal IP addresses (e.g.,
127.0.0.1,169.254.169.254) or to external domains controlled by the attacker. - For WordPress Flaws: Monitor web server access logs for unusual requests to the affected plugin endpoints, such as POST requests to the 'Just Highlight' settings page with script tags, or direct calls to the
lockerco_submit_postAJAX action.
| Type | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
url_pattern |
*/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=just-highlight |
The settings page for the vulnerable 'Just Highlight' plugin. Look for POST requests containing <script> tags. |
url_pattern |
*/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=lockerco_submit_post |
The vulnerable AJAX endpoint in the 'Locker Content' plugin. Any access by unauthenticated users is suspicious. |
network_traffic_pattern |
Outbound requests from NeMo Agent server to 169.254.169.254 |
An attempt to exploit the SSRF to steal cloud metadata credentials. |
Detection Methods
- Vulnerability Scanning: Use web application scanners and WordPress-specific scanners (e.g., WPScan) to identify vulnerable plugins and their versions.
- Web Application Firewall (WAF): A properly configured WAF can detect and block common SSRF and XSS attack patterns, providing a layer of defense even before a patch is applied (
D3-ITF: Inbound Traffic Filtering). - Log Review: Regularly review web server and application logs for the observables listed above. Integrate these logs into a SIEM for automated alerting.
Remediation Steps
- Patch Immediately: The most important step is to update the affected software. Upgrade the NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit to version 1.3.0 or later, and update the WordPress plugins to their latest patched versions (
D3-SU: Software Update). - Input Validation: As a general best practice, all user-supplied input should be sanitized on the server side to prevent XSS and other injection attacks.
- Egress Filtering: For the NVIDIA SSRF, configure firewall rules to block outbound connections from the application server to internal network ranges and known cloud metadata endpoints, if not explicitly required for operation (
D3-OTF: Outbound Traffic Filtering).
Timeline of Events
MITRE ATT&CK Mitigations
Update Software
The primary mitigation is to update the NVIDIA toolkit and WordPress plugins to the patched versions.
Mapped D3FEND Techniques:
Restrict Web-Based Content
Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to filter for and block common XSS and SSRF attack patterns.
Mapped D3FEND Techniques:
Filter Network Traffic
Implement egress filtering to prevent SSRF exploits from reaching internal network resources or cloud metadata services.
Mapped D3FEND Techniques:
D3FEND Defensive Countermeasures
For all vulnerabilities listed (CVE-2025-33203, CVE-2025-13311, CVE-2025-12525), the most critical and effective countermeasure is to apply the security patches provided by the vendors. Administrators of NVIDIA's NeMo Agent Toolkit must upgrade to version 1.3.0 immediately. WordPress administrators must update the 'Just Highlight' and 'Locker Content' plugins to the latest available versions through their dashboard. Organizations should have an automated process for identifying vulnerable software versions in their environment and a streamlined process for testing and deploying security updates. Delaying these updates leaves the door open for trivial exploitation of these publicly known flaws.
A Web Application Firewall (WAF) serves as an excellent compensating control, particularly for the web-based vulnerabilities in NVIDIA's toolkit and the WordPress plugins. For the SSRF flaw (CVE-2025-33203), a WAF can be configured with rules to inspect the parameters of the chat API and block requests that contain URLs pointing to internal IP addresses (e.g., 127.0.0.1, 10.0.0.0/8) or cloud metadata endpoints (169.254.169.254). For the XSS flaw (CVE-2025-13311), the WAF can inspect POST requests to the plugin's settings page and block any that contain malicious JavaScript payloads like <script> tags. This filtering can block exploit attempts before they reach the vulnerable application code.
To mitigate the maximum impact of the SSRF vulnerability (CVE-2025-33203) in the NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit, strict egress filtering should be applied to the server running the application. The server's firewall or cloud security group should be configured to deny all outbound traffic by default. Specific 'allow' rules should then be created only for the legitimate, known external endpoints the application needs to function. Crucially, this should include a rule explicitly blocking any outbound traffic destined for the cloud provider's metadata service IP (169.254.169.254). This prevents an attacker from using the SSRF flaw to pivot from the application to stealing the underlying cloud instance's credentials, which could lead to a full cloud environment compromise.
Sources & References
Article Author
Jason Gomes
• Cybersecurity PractitionerCybersecurity professional with over 10 years of specialized experience in security operations, threat intelligence, incident response, and security automation. Expertise spans SOAR/XSOAR orchestration, threat intelligence platforms, SIEM/UEBA analytics, and building cyber fusion centers. Background includes technical enablement, solution architecture for enterprise and government clients, and implementing security automation workflows across IR, TIP, and SOC use cases.
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