Abandoned Contact Form 7 <= 2.2 - Missing Authorization to Unauthenticated Arbitrary Post Deletion via 'recover_id' Parameter
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Unpatched
- Affected Plugin
- Abandoned Contact Form 7
- Affected Version
<= 2.2- CVSS
- 5.3Medium
- Weakness type
- CWE-862 · Missing Authorization
- CVE
CVE-2026-9187
At a glance
CVE-2026-9187 is a medium-severity Missing Authorization vulnerability in the Abandoned Contact Form 7 WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 2.2. It carries a CVSS score of 5.3 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity). Exploitation requires no authentication. No fixed release has been reported yet; treat installations running this software as exposed. Disclosed June 2026, reported by g0wthr.
Vulnerability Overview
The Abandoned Contact Form 7 plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized arbitrary post deletion in versions up to, and including, 2.2. This is due to a missing capability check and missing nonce validation in the action__remove_abandoned() function, which is registered to both the wp_ajax_remove_abandoned and wp_ajax_nopriv_remove_abandoned hooks. The handler takes a user-supplied recover_id parameter from $_POST and passes it directly to wp_delete_post() with the force-delete flag set to true, without verifying that the ID belongs to the plugin's own cf7af_data post type. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to permanently delete arbitrary posts, pages, or other content on the affected site by sending a single admin-ajax.
Technical Analysis
The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user.
CWE-862: Missing Authorization
Abandoned Contact Form 7 <= 2.2 carries this weakness at action__remove_abandoned(), and reaching it takes no account at all. A missing authorization check means a function is reachable by anyone who can reach the endpoint, because the code never asks whether the caller is allowed to perform the action.
Any user who can reach the endpoint gets to run an action reserved for higher-privileged roles, from reading protected data to changing settings or content. No fixed build of this plugin is recorded for Abandoned Contact Form 7 yet, so installs running <= 2.2 stay exposed until the vendor ships one.
Remediation
No known patch available. Please review the vulnerability's details in depth and employ mitigations based on your organization's risk tolerance. It may be best to uninstall the affected software and find a replacement.
How does WordSec protect against this?
This one needs no account at all, which puts it outside what login hardening can reach; WordSec's login security narrows the account-level paths around it, and the firewall is what inspects the request itself. No patched version is recorded yet, which is the case where a filtering layer matters most, because there is nothing to update to.
- Login Security
- Alerts
External References
Related records
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