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Formidable Forms EUVDEUVD-2026-80199

| CVE-2026-85641 MEDIUM
Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity (CWE-345)
2026-09-16 WPScan GHSA-c92r-vvxr-8r78
4.3
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: WPScan
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Submit crafted form entry as unauth visitor
  2. Delivery
    Spoof last-editor identifier to admin user ID
  3. Exploit
    HTML-stripping bypassed, markup stored
  4. Execution
    Admin opens entry in wp-admin
  5. Impact
    Attacker markup renders in admin session

Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A08:2025 - Software or Data Integrity Failures
ASVS 5.0
V15 - Secure Coding and Architecture Data authenticity verification
Exploitation Conditions

Requires the Formidable Forms plugin (before 6.35) with a public-facing form that accepts entries; the attacker can submit unauthenticated. The core prerequisite is that the plugin trusts a client-supplied identifier for 'who last edited the entry' and uses it to decide whether stored HTML is stripped - so an unauthenticated submitter sets that identifier to a privileged (administrator) user ID to bypass sanitization and forge attribution. The principal LIMITER is user interaction: the malicious markup only renders when an administrator (or other privileged user) actually opens the affected entry in the wp-admin entry view (UI:R). Impact is bounded to that admin view context and to false attribution; no authentication is required of the attacker, and default configurations with any public form are exploitable.

Impact

This is a genuine but modest-priority issue. The vendor CVSS of 4.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N) reflects an unauthenticated, network-reachable weakness that requires admin user interaction (viewing the entry) and yields only limited integrity impact. Exploitation-probability signals are low and consistent: EPSS is 0.12% (2nd percentile), there is no CISA KEV listing, so this is not confirmed actively exploited. However, a public WPScan exploit exists, so proof-of-concept is available and the barrier to weaponization is low. The key tension is between the vendor's conservative I:L / S:U / C:N scoring and the actual mechanism: unauthenticated visitors can cause attacker-controlled HTML markup to be RENDERED in the wp-admin entry view that would normally be stripped. If that markup includes active script, this behaves like a stored XSS firing in an administrator's authenticated browser session - which realistically implies a scope change (S:C) and some confidentiality/integrity exposure the 4.3 base score understates. Net: low probabilistic risk (no active exploitation, tiny EPSS, niche trigger requiring an admin to open the entry) but the impact ceiling is higher than 4.3 suggests if the rendered markup is scriptable rather than benign formatting.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

An unauthenticated attacker submits a Formidable Forms entry while also setting the 'last edited by' identifier to an administrator's user ID, which causes the plugin to skip HTML stripping and to falsely attribute the submission to that admin. When an administrator later opens the entry in wp-admin, the attacker-controlled markup renders in their authenticated session, and the forged attribution misleads the operator about who created the entry. A public WPScan proof-of-concept exists, lowering the effort to reproduce.

This Month Plan within 30 days. Why: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9).
Patch available 0.1% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Sep 17, 2026

Stored HTML injection in the WordPress Formidable Forms plugin before 6.35 allows unauthenticated visitors to submit form entries that carry a forged 'last edited by' identifier pointing to an administrator, causing the plugin to skip its normal HTML stripping and render attacker-supplied markup inside the wp-admin entry view; the same forgery falsely attributes the submission to an administrator. Exploitation requires a public-facing form on the site and, critically, requires a privileged user to actually open the poisoned entry in the admin entry view (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N), so the real-world impact is bounded to that admin view context plus false attribution rather than full site compromise. Publicly available exploit code exists and a WPScan advisory documents the flaw, but EPSS is only 0.12% (2nd percentile) and there is no indication of active exploitation; the independent assessment rates this a genuine but modest-priority issue.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patch: Formidable Forms 6.35 - upgrade the plugin to 6.35 or later immediately; this is the only complete fix, since the flaw is in how the plugin trusts the client-supplied 'last edited by' identifier. Where an immediate upgrade is not possible, apply targeted compensating controls: (1) require authentication or a membership/role gate on every public form so unauthenticated visitors cannot submit entries (side effect: removes anonymous lead capture and open registration flows); (2) temporarily deactivate the plugin or disable entry storage/retrieval if the affected forms are non-essential; (3) restrict access to the Formidable Forms entry screens in wp-admin to a minimal set of trusted users and audit stored entries for unexpected 'last edited by' admin attribution or embedded markup (side effect: relies on detection rather than prevention and does not fix the sanitization bypass); and (4) add a WAF rule that blocks submissions containing HTML markup in fields where it is not expected (side effect: false positives on legitimate rich-text inputs). Note that no public exploit in active use has been confirmed - exploit code is publicly available and EPSS is 0.12% - so prioritize patching by exposure: sites with public unauthenticated forms first. Consult https://wpscan.com/vulnerability/99933e4e-e371-4ba4-ad41-6849fcc6a5eb/ and https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-85641 for the latest vendor guidance.

Affected VersionsENISA

Formidable Forms 6.34 <6.35

Affected Packages

euvd formidable_forms fix: 6.35

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

Formidable Forms is a widely deployed WordPress form-builder plugin that stores submissions as 'entries' and records metadata about which user last edited each entry. The root cause is CWE-345 (Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity): the plugin accepts a client-supplied value for the 'last edited by' user identifier without validating it against the authenticated session, then uses that untrusted identifier as a trust signal when deciding whether to sanitize/strip HTML from the stored entry values. Because that identifier can be set by an unauthenticated submitter to a privileged (administrator) user ID, the sanitization branch that would normally remove markup is bypassed for that record, and the entry is both rendered with the injected markup in the admin entry view and misattributed to an administrator who never touched it. The technique is a form of parameter/trust-boundary tampering rather than a memory-safety or injection-into-SQL issue; the impact lands in the wp-admin rendering context (scope change S:C in the assessed vector), which is why confidentiality and integrity impact are rated Low while availability is None. The CPE record (cpe:2.3:a:unknown:formidable_forms:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) confirms the affected component is the plugin itself, with EUVD narrowing the affected release to versions 6.34 and earlier in the 6.x line (<6.35).

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Severity by source

Vendor (WPScan) PRIMARY 4.3 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
vuln.today AI 6.1 MEDIUM

Unauthenticated submission (PR:N) whose markup renders in a separate admin security context (S:C, UI:R for the admin viewing it), giving limited confidentiality/integrity if script executes; no availability impact.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N

Primary rating from Vendor (WPScan).

CVSS VectorVendor: WPScan

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

Lifecycle Timeline

4
CVSS changed
Sep 17, 2026 - 13:22 NVD
4.3 (MEDIUM)
Patch available
Sep 16, 2026 - 07:01 EUVD
CVE Published
Sep 16, 2026 - 06:00 cve.org
MEDIUM 4.3
CVE Published
Sep 16, 2026 - 06:00 cve.org
UNKNOWN (no severity yet)

DescriptionCVE.org

The Formidable Forms WordPress plugin before 6.35 does not restrict who can set the identifier recording which user last edited a form entry, and relies on that identifier when deciding whether to strip HTML from stored entry values, allowing unauthenticated visitors to have markup rendered in the admin entry view that would otherwise be removed, and to attribute their submission to an administrator who never made it.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.1%
Top 98% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
very popular WordPress form-builder plugin, millions of active installs
Exploit
POC
Public exploit code exists
Data Quality
4 sources
Confidence: Medium

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.

SignalValue
Severity MEDIUM
CISA KEV No
Public POC Yes
EPSS 0.1%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9)
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Scheduled
Exploitation· derived
Poc
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable· derived
No
Human Impact· derived
Medium

Priority Score

42
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +22
PoC: +20
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Information disclosure occurs when an application unintentionally exposes sensitive data that aids attackers in reconnaissance or directly compromises security.

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