Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessSend crafted form submission to public endpoint
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ExploitInject shortcode into unvalidated action value
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Executiondo_shortcode processes attacker input
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ImpactArbitrary shortcode executes server-side
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A05:2025 - Injection
ASVS 5.0
V1 - Encoding and Sanitization Code injection prevention, sandbox exec
MITRE ATT&CK
2 techniques across 2 tactics: Execution, Initial Access The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | No authentication is required (PR:N) and the flaw is reachable by unauthenticated attackers over the network against default installations of the Ninja Forms WordPress plugin in all versions up to and including 3.15.5. The specific trigger is an action (associated in the referenced source with the SuccessMessage action and the AJAX submission controller) that passes a value to do_shortcode without properly validating it; the precise field controlling that value is not fully described in the available sources beyond the cited code locations. The practical limiting factor is that impact is bounded by which shortcodes are registered on the target site - arbitrary shortcode execution only yields meaningful compromise if powerful or dangerous shortcodes are available, which is why CVSS caps confidentiality and integrity at Low and availability at None. |
| Impact | This is a moderate-severity issue that warrants timely but not emergency remediation. The CVSS 3.1 base score of 6.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N) indicates a network-reachable flaw requiring no authentication, no user interaction, and low attack complexity - the most favorable conditions for an attacker - but impact is capped at Low confidentiality and Low integrity with no availability impact, which keeps the score out of the high/critical range. The vuln.today decision label is 'this_month', consistent with a prioritized-but-not-urgent posture. No EPSS score was supplied, so exploitation probability cannot be quantified from the input. The vulnerability is NOT on the CISA KEV list and there is no confirmed public exploit: the provided references are the Wordfence advisory, WordPress.org plugin pages, and plugins.trac source-code/changeset links showing the affected code paths and the fix - these are code-location citations, not working exploit code. The real risk driver here is prevalence rather than raw severity: Ninja Forms is a very widely installed plugin, so an unauthenticated flaw affecting default installations is attractive for opportunistic, automated scanning. The practical ceiling on impact is that 'arbitrary shortcode execution' is bounded by which shortcodes are actually registered on a given site; severity therefore varies per-deployment and the CVSS Low/Low impact reflects this uncertainty. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An unauthenticated attacker submits a crafted request to a public Ninja Forms submission endpoint containing input that is later passed to do_shortcode without proper validation, causing the plugin to execute attacker-chosen shortcodes server-side. Because no authentication or user interaction is required (PR:N/UI:N) and attack complexity is low, this can be automated against any site running an affected version. No confirmed working exploit code was identified in the provided sources; the actual damage depends on which shortcodes are available on the target site. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Oct 31, 2026
Unauthenticated arbitrary shortcode execution in the WordPress plugin Ninja Forms (Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder) affects all versions up to and including 3.15.5. A form-processing action - associated in the cited source with the SuccessMessage action and the AJAX submission controller - passes an insufficiently validated value into do_shortcode(), allowing a remote attacker with no privileges to have arbitrary registered shortcodes rendered and executed. Impact is bounded because severity depends on which shortcodes the target site exposes (CVSS caps confidentiality and integrity at Low and availability at None); no public exploit has been identified at time of analysis, and the vendor has released 3.15.6 as the fixed version.
RemediationAI
Upgrade the Ninja Forms plugin to version 3.15.6 or later; the vendor-released patch is captured in the WordPress.org changeset comparing 3.15.5 to 3.15.6 (https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&new=3749135%40ninja-forms%2Ftags%2F3.15.6&old=3717122%40ninja-forms%2Ftags%2F3.15.5), and version details are on the plugin page at https://wordpress.org/plugins/ninja-forms/. Because no authentication is needed (PR:N) and the flaw is reachable over the network, sites that cannot update immediately should reduce exposure by auditing which shortcodes are registered and removing or disabling any that perform sensitive operations, since the achievable impact is limited to whatever shortcodes the site exposes; note that this narrows but does not eliminate the risk, as the vulnerable do_shortcode call remains present in 3.15.5 and earlier. Restricting or disabling public form submissions and the plugin's AJAX submission endpoint would block the trigger path but breaks legitimate form functionality. The fix itself carries no known side effects beyond the standard plugin update.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
Ninja Forms is a WordPress form-builder plugin whose submission pipeline is driven by AJAX controllers and a set of form "Actions" that run after a submission is processed. The CWE-94 (improper control of code generation) root cause here is that a value reaching the SuccessMessage action - the referenced code is includes/Actions/SuccessMessage.php around lines 63 and 70, together with the AJAX Submission controller (includes/AJAX/Controllers/Submission.php lines 52 and 60), the MergeTags abstract class (includes/Abstracts/MergeTags.php line 64) and the Fields merge tag (includes/MergeTags/Fields.php line 268) - is passed to WordPress's do_shortcode() without adequate validation. Because the value is not constrained before shortcode expansion, an attacker can cause any shortcode registered on the target WordPress installation to be evaluated in the context of the form submission. The practical ceiling on impact is therefore set by the site's shortcode inventory: with only benign shortcodes present the effect is limited, but sites running powerful shortcodes can turn this into content injection or worse. The trigger surface is the submission/AJAX path, and the precise field that controls the injected value is not fully described in the available sources beyond those cited code locations.
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
Unauthenticated network submission with no user interaction (PR:N/UI:N/AV:N/AC:L); impact limited to Low C/I because effect depends on site-registered shortcodes, with no availability impact.
Primary rating from Vendor (Wordfence).
CVSS VectorVendor: Wordfence
DescriptionCVE.org
The The Ninja Forms - Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary shortcode execution in all versions up to, and including, 3.15.5 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.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Code injection occurs when an application accepts user input and passes it directly into a language interpreter or evaluator without proper sanitization.
Remote Code Execution represents the critical moment when an attacker successfully runs arbitrary code on a target system without physical access.
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EUVD-2026-114578
GHSA-pqjx-p6p5-mv3f
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
Exploit-DB