CVE-2026-19513

Gravity Forms <= 3.0.2 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Upload via State/Chunk Hash Confusion

2026-09-01 01:18
Alex Thomas

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 3.0.3
Affected Plugin
Gravity Forms
Affected Version
<= 3.0.2
CVSS
8.1High
Weakness type
CWE-434 · Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type
CVE
CVE-2026-19513
View all Gravity Forms vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-19513 is a high-severity Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type vulnerability in the Gravity Forms WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 3.0.2. It carries a CVSS score of 8.1 (reachable over the network; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 3.0.3; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed September 2026, reported by Alex Thomas.

Vulnerability Overview

The Gravity Forms plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary File Upload in all versions up to, and including, 3.0.2. This is due to insufficient validation of multi-file upload chunk state in the `GFAsyncUpload::upload()` function, where public form state URL hashes can be reused as chunk continuation hashes and attacker-controlled temporary filenames are accepted before sanitization. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers, when a public form contains a File Upload field with Multiple Files enabled, to upload a valid PNG/PDF polyglot to an attacker-selected public `.php` or `.html` filename in the Gravity Forms temporary upload directory. This can lead to remote code execution on WordPress systems that use NGINX or other non `.htaccess` respecting web servers. NOTE: During installation and activation, the Gravity Forms plugin places a `.htaccess` file in this directory, which prevents this vulnerability from being exploited despite the PHP file being written to the temporary upload directory. In these cases where PHP execution is blocked, attacker-written HTML can result in stored same-origin cross-site scripting if a victim visits the generated file URL.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-434: Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type

Gravity Forms <= 3.0.2 carries this weakness at upload(), and reaching it takes no account at all. An unrestricted file upload lets a caller store a file whose type or destination the application does not properly constrain.

If an uploaded file lands anywhere the server will execute, the flaw becomes remote code execution and the site should be treated as fully compromised. For Gravity Forms the fix is 3.0.3: builds <= 3.0.2 are affected, anything from 3.0.3 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.0.3, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Gravity Forms 3.0.3 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Login Security

External References

Related records

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