Ninja Forms legacy textarea rendering exposes administrators to stored script

An anonymous non-rich-text textarea submission is stored and rendered without safe HTML encoding by the legacy submission editor in Ninja Forms 3.15.3. Attacker-controlled text can escape the textarea context and execute in the WordPress administrative origin when an Administrator opens the attacker-known direct submission URL. The exact field key and URL are not disclosed. Authoritative affected range: <= 3.15.3. Confirmed remediation: 3.15.4.

CVE / CNA score 7.2 CVSS 3.1 · security@wordfence.com

NVD score Pending NVD has not published its own CVSS assessment.

Component: Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder
Plugin slug: ninja-forms
Affected: <= 3.15.3
Safe version: 3.15.4
Published: Sep 22, 2026
Weakness: CWE-79 — Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

This CVE was published Sep 22, 2026 and is one of 74 known issues for this plugin.

What to do

Update, patch or deactivate.

Confirmed fixed release: 3.15.4. The release strengthens output escaping on the administrative submission-edit screen. Official changelog: https://wordpress.org/plugins/ninja-forms/#developers . Avoid opening untrusted legacy submissions until updated. Encode textarea content at the final output boundary and remove malicious saved entries; escaping only rich-text fields would leave this path open.

A safe version is available, so updating to that version or later is the preferred remediation. If an immediate update is not practical, consider a targeted application patch or temporarily restricting the affected functionality.

Deactivate only when warranted by your risk profile, or when advised by your hosting provider in the limited circumstances where the vulnerability cannot otherwise be mitigated. If you’re unsure which action is appropriate, contact Fused or your hosting provider for guidance.

Source record

Technical description

Ninja Forms 3.15.3 stores an anonymous non-RTE textarea value and renders it without safe HTML encoding in the legacy submission editor. An attacker can break out of the textarea with stored script. When an Administrator opens the attacker-known direct submission URL, the script runs in the WordPress admin origin.

CVE / CNA vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

References

Primary and upstream sources

Data attribution: This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

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