# CVE-2026-85235: Forminator Forms <= 1.57.2 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Rich-Text Textarea Field

> Unauthenticated attackers can inject scripts via form submissions that execute in admin sessions when viewing entries, potentially leading to account takeover.

- **Severity:** High 7.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/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:** 1 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 1 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-p5j2-g3x4-wqgf

## What is CVE-2026-85235?

CVE-2026-85235 is a high-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in wpmudev Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder, published on 1 Oct 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Rich-Text Textarea Field in all versions up to, and including, 1.57.2 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. Successful exploitation requires an administrator to open the stored submission entry in the Forminator Entries view and interact with the planted link, at which point WordPress core's jQuery-based click handler on `.contextual-help-tabs a` evaluates the entity-decoded href as HTML, firing the attacker's payload in the administrator's authenticated wp-admin session.

Weakness: CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-85235?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-85235?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-85235 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-85235 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-85235 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-85235 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-85235 is a high-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in wpmudev Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder, published on 1 Oct 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-2026-85235 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: wpmudev Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder. 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-2026-85235/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-85235/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-85235
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-85235
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-85235

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-85235/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.