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Contact Form XWordPress extension · Plugin Planet

CVE-2022-25601

MEDIUM · 6.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-03-11
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.4.1 or later.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability affecting parameter &tab discovered in Contact Form X WordPress plugin (versions <= 2.4).

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Reflected XSS vulnerability in the &tab parameter of the Contact Form X WordPress plugin (versions <= 2.4) allows attackers to inject malicious JavaScript code via crafted URLs. When victims click malicious links, the injected script executes in their browsers, potentially stealing session cookies or performing actions on their behalf.

MitigationUpdate Contact Form X plugin to version 2.5 or later which contains the fix. If immediate update is not possible, implement output escaping/sanitization on the &tab parameter before reflecting it in the page.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Contact Form XWordPress extension
Affected:< 2.4.1
FedoraOperating system
Affected:= 34= 35= 36

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Locate Contact Form X plugin installation
    Navigate to WordPress admin dashboard > Plugins > Installed Plugins. Look for 'Contact Form X' or 'Plugin Planet Contact Form X' in the list of installed plugins.
    Affected if The plugin is installed and appears in the plugins list.
  2. Check installed plugin version
    In the Installed Plugins list, locate Contact Form X and note the version number displayed below the plugin name. Alternatively, check the plugin's main PHP file header for the 'Version' tag.
    Affected if The installed version is lower than 2.4.1 (for example, 2.4, 2.3.x, etc.).
  3. Verify plugin is active
    In WordPress admin > Plugins, confirm that Contact Form X shows as 'Active' under the plugin status column.
    Affected if The plugin is active and the version is less than 2.4.1.
  4. Test &tab parameter reflection
    Visit a page on your site that loads Contact Form X (such as a contact page). Append ?tab=test to the URL and view the page source or inspect the rendered HTML to see if the 'test' value appears unescaped in the output.
    Affected if The &tab parameter value is reflected in the HTML without encoding (visible as raw text rather than escaped entities).

You are affected if Contact Form X plugin versions below 2.4.1 are installed and active, and the &tab parameter reflects user input without HTML escaping in the page output.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.4.1 or later
Fixed in 2.4.1
Interim mitigation

Update Contact Form X plugin to version 2.5 or later which contains the fix. If immediate update is not possible, implement output escaping/sanitization on the &tab parameter before reflecting it in the page.

Recommended fix High confidence

Contact Form X version 2.4.1

  1. Backup your WordPress site and database before making any changes
  2. Update the Contact Form X plugin to version 2.4.1 or later through the WordPress admin dashboard (Plugins > Contact Form X > Update Now)
  3. Alternatively, update via WP-CLI: wp plugin update contact-form-x
  4. Verify the update was successful by checking the plugin version in WordPress admin
  5. Clear any caching layers (site cache, CDN cache) after updating
  6. Test that the &tab parameter no longer reflects untrusted input (the XSS vulnerability should be remediated)

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Contact Form X Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,272.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-25601 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data