VulnerabilityPublished 9 Jan 2024Updated 3 Jun 2025

CVE-2023-6830: Formidable Forms (WordPress plugin) · Cross-site Scripting

Affects Formidable Forms (WordPress plugin)Source CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.5 Medium.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.5Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 32% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.

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

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: Low
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the impacted component.
Integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 9 Jan 2024
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
sswells Formidable Forms – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Payment, Calculator Form & Custom Form Builder	Affected *	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2023-6830 effectively, European organizations should take the following specific actions: 1) Immediately audit all WordPress installations to identify the presence and version of the Formidable Forms plugin. 2) Monitor the official plugin repository and vendor announcements for patches or updates addressing this vulnerability and apply them as soon as they become available. 3) Implement Web Application Firewall (WAF) rules to detect and block suspicious HTML or script injection attempts targeting form fields, especially those originating from unauthenticated sources. 4) Restrict access to the WordPress admin interface by IP whitelisting or VPN to reduce exposure to remote attackers. 5) Educate administrators to be cautious when reviewing form entries and to report any unusual content or behavior immediately. 6) Consider deploying Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to limit the execution of injected scripts within the admin interface. 7) Regularly back up WordPress sites and databases to enable quick restoration in case of defacement or compromise. 8) Conduct security scans and penetration tests focused on input validation and XSS vulnerabilities in custom or third-party plugins. These measures go beyond generic advice by focusing on proactive detection, access control, and layered defenses tailored to the specific attack vector of this vulnerability.

Description

The Formidable Forms plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to HTML injection in versions up to, and including, 6.7. This vulnerability allows unauthenticated users to inject arbitrary HTML code into form fields. When the form data is viewed by an administrator in the Entries View Page, the injected HTML code is rendered, potentially leading to admin area defacement or redirection to malicious websites.

Impact

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2023-6830 can be substantial, particularly for those relying on WordPress websites with Formidable Forms installed for customer interaction, data collection, or internal workflows. Successful exploitation can lead to unauthorized HTML injection in the admin interface, potentially enabling attackers to deface the website’s backend, redirect administrators to phishing or malware sites, or execute further client-side attacks that compromise admin credentials or session tokens. This can result in data breaches, loss of trust, reputational damage, and regulatory non-compliance under GDPR if personal data is exposed or manipulated. Since the vulnerability does not require authentication or user interaction, it can be exploited remotely by any attacker scanning for vulnerable sites, increasing the attack surface. The integrity of administrative data and the confidentiality of sensitive information managed through the plugin are at risk. While availability is not directly impacted, the indirect consequences of a compromised admin interface could lead to downtime or loss of control over the website. European organizations with high web presence, especially in sectors like e-commerce, finance, healthcare, and government, where WordPress is commonly used, should consider this vulnerability a priority for remediation.

CWE-79Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #1OWASP Top 10 A05:2025: Injection (opens in a new tab)
The product does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users.
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use a vetted library or framework that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
Implementation · Architecture and Design
Understand the context in which your data will be used and the encoding that will be expected. This is especially important when transmitting data between different components, or when generating outputs that can contain multiple encodings at the same time, such as web pages or multi-part mail messages.
Architecture and Design · Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction
Understand all the potential areas where untrusted inputs can enter your software: parameters or arguments, cookies, anything read from the network, environment variables, reverse DNS lookups, query results, request headers, URL components, e-mail, files, filenames, databases, and any external systems that provide…
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Cross Site Scripting Prevention (opens in a new tab)
DOM based XSS Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Injection Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
Deserialization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V5.3.3 (opens in a new tab)
V1.5.1 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XSS Using MIME Type Mismatch (opens in a new tab)
DOM-Based XSS (opens in a new tab)
Reflected XSS (opens in a new tab)
Stored XSS (opens in a new tab)
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 4 Jul 2025, 08:25 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-79

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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