Spam Protect for Contact Form 7 < 1.2.10 - Authenticated (Editor+) Remote Code Execution
Strategic Overview
- Status
- Patched in 1.2.10
- Affected Plugin
- Spam Protect for Contact Form 7
- Affected Version
< 1.2.10- CVSS
- 7.2High
- Weakness type
- CWE-94 · Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
- CVE
CVE-2026-1540
At a glance
CVE-2026-1540 is a high-severity Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection') vulnerability in the Spam Protect for Contact Form 7 WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 1.2.10. It carries a CVSS score of 7.2 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires an authenticated account at Editor level or above. The issue is fixed in version 1.2.10; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed March 2026, reported by Chiao-Lin Yu (Steven Meow).
Vulnerability Overview
The Spam Protect for Contact Form 7 plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution in all versions up to 1.2.10 (exclusive). This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Editor-level access and above, to execute code on the server.
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 interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.
CWE-94: Improper Control of Generation of Code ('Code Injection')
Reaching this weakness in Spam Protect for Contact Form 7 < 1.2.10 takes an account at Editor level or above. Code injection means input from a request reaches a language construct that evaluates code, so the attacker's text is executed rather than treated as data.
The injected code runs with the web server's privileges, giving the attacker the same access to the database and filesystem as WordPress itself. For Spam Protect for Contact Form 7 the fix is 1.2.10: builds < 1.2.10 are affected, anything from 1.2.10 onward is not.
Remediation
Update to version 1.2.10, or a newer patched version
How does WordSec protect against this?
An attacker needs Editor access first, so the firewall sees the attempt as traffic from a logged-in account: 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: Spam Protect for Contact Form 7 1.2.10 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.
- Firewall
- Scanner
- Alerts
External References
Related records
Other vulnerabilities in Spam Protect for Contact Form 7
Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C