CVE-2026-9187

What is known

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.

Business impact

Successful exploitation of CVE-2026-9187, a medium vulnerability (CVSS 5.3) affecting the affected product, may affect the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the vulnerable environment. The exact impact depends on the installed version, exposed interfaces and deployment configuration.

Recommended administrator action

Confirm whether the affected product is present and compare installed versions with the vendor advisory and NVD record. Apply the vendor patch or documented mitigation; until remediation is complete, reduce exposure of affected interfaces, review relevant logs and monitor for indicators of exploitation. DataHouse can support version verification, managed patching, network exposure reduction, log review and backup validation for dedicated, cloud and colocated environments.

Sources

• NVD
• Reference
• Reference
• Reference
• Reference