CVE-2026-9017
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 · uneditedThe NEX-Forms – Ultimate Forms Plugin for WordPress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass in all versions up to, and including, 9.2.2. This is due to the plugin not properly verifying that a user is authorized to perform an action. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to overwrite the saved_admin_email, saved_user_email, and saved_user_email_address fields of arbitrary form entries belonging to other users, and cause the site to dispatch attacker-controlled email content to attacker-chosen recipient addresses.
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 confidenceThe NEX-Forms WordPress plugin fails to verify user authorization before allowing modifications to form entry fields (saved_admin_email, saved_user_email, saved_user_email_address). This broken access control enables unauthenticated attackers to overwrite these fields in arbitrary form entries and trigger emails with attacker-controlled content to attacker-specified recipient addresses.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify NEX-Forms plugin is installedLog into the WordPress admin dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins, or use WP-CLI: `wp plugin list --name='nex-forms' --status=active`Affected if The plugin appears in the list and is activated - this confirms the vulnerable code is present in the environment
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Determine installed NEX-Forms versionIn WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins and find the NEX-Forms entry to view the version number, or check the main plugin file: `/wp-content/plugins/nex-forms/main-version.php` or the plugin header in `/wp-content/plugins/nex-forms/nex-forms.php`Affected if A version number is displayed that is lower than 9.2.3
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Confirm version is in vulnerable rangeCompare the installed version number to the fixed version 9.2.3 - any version below 9.2.3 contains the vulnerabilityAffected if Installed version is below 9.2.3 (e.g., 9.2.2, 9.1.x, 8.x, etc.)
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Verify AJAX endpoint accessibilityTest if the NEX-Forms AJAX endpoint responds without authentication by making a GET request to `your-site.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=nf_ajax` or checking the plugin's public AJAX handlers in `/wp-content/plugins/nex-forms/includes/AJAX/`Affected if The endpoint responds and accepts requests without requiring WordPress user authentication
You are affected if the NEX-Forms WordPress plugin is installed, active, and running at a version lower than 9.2.3, as this version range contains the broken access control vulnerability that allows unauthenticated modification of email fields.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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.
From vendor dataUpdate the NEX-Forms plugin to version 9.2.3 or later which implements proper authorization verification. As a temporary mitigation, restrict access to the plugin's AJAX endpoints at the web server level or consider disabling the plugin if email functionality is not critical.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-9017 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-9017 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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