CVE-2026-85642: Formidable Forms denial of service vulnerability
high 7.5 published 2026-10-21
- Affected versions
- 6.5 up to (not including) 7.0
- Fixed in
- 7.0
- Latest version
- 7.0
- Severity
- High · CVSS 7.5
- Active installs
- 300,000+
- Type
- Denial of service
What an attacker needs
- Access: None. No account or login is needed.
CVSS vector (score by CISA ADP): CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
What to do now
- Update Formidable Forms to 7.0 or newer: Dashboard → Updates, or Plugins → “update now”.
- If you cannot update right away, deactivate it until you can.
- Turn on auto-updates for it: Plugins → “Enable auto-updates” on its row.
- Not sure which version you run? Check your version against every known Formidable Forms issue.
With WP-CLI:
wp plugin get formidable --field=version. - If you ran an affected version and something looks off (new admin users, spam pages, redirects), run the free scan below.
The advisory
The Formidable Forms WordPress plugin before 7.0 does not verify the identity of the caller before recording the timestamp it uses to rate limit payment gateway verification requests, allowing unauthenticated attackers to consume the daily allowance and cause legitimate verification attempts to be refused for the next 24 hours.
References
- NVD CVE-2026-85642 nvd.nist.gov
- WPScan advisory wpscan.com
Related
Ran an affected version? Check your site for signs of a hack
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Where this data comes from
- CVE record, score and references: NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD), checked 2026-11-04. This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
- Versions and install counts: wordpress.org/plugins/formidable (Plugins API), fetched 2026-11-01.
- The summary, “what an attacker needs” and “what to do” sections are our plain-English reading of the record and the plugin's release history; the quoted description is the record's own text. Spot an error? Email Daniel.