# CVE-2026-85117: Contact Form 7 Captcha 0.1.7 - 0.1.8 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary Shortcode Execution via Form Field Repopulation

> Unauthenticated attackers can execute arbitrary shortcodes via form field repopulation in the Contact Form 7 Captcha plugin.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 9 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 9 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-f9wj-4mrj-xggq

## What is CVE-2026-85117?

CVE-2026-85117 is a medium-severity code injection vulnerability in Unknown Contact Form 7 Captcha, published on 9 Sep 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Contact Form 7 Captcha WordPress plugin before 0.1.9 runs the shortcode parser over the whole rendered Contact Form 7 form, including the values a visitor submitted, allowing unauthenticated users to execute arbitrary shortcodes registered on the site.

Weakness: CWE-74 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-85117?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-85117?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-85117 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-85117 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-85117 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-85117 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-85117 is a medium-severity code injection vulnerability in Unknown Contact Form 7 Captcha, published on 9 Sep 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-85117 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Unknown Contact Form 7 Captcha. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-85117/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-85117/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-85117
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-85117
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-85117

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-85117/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.