CVE-2024-0685 in Ninja Forms Contact Form Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 02/02/2024
The Ninja Forms Contact Form – The Drag and Drop Form Builder for WordPress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Second Order SQL Injection via the email address value submitted through forms in all versions up to, and including, 3.7.1 due to insufficient escaping on the user supplied parameter and lack of sufficient preparation on the existing SQL query. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject SQL in their email address that will append additional into the already existing query when an administrator triggers a personal data export.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/11/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-0685 affects the Ninja Forms Contact Form plugin for WordPress, specifically targeting versions up to and including 3.7.1. This represents a critical security flaw that exploits a second order SQL injection vulnerability, where malicious input is initially stored and later executed during a different operation. The vulnerability manifests when attackers submit specially crafted email addresses through forms, which are then processed and stored within the WordPress database without adequate sanitization or escaping mechanisms.
The technical flaw resides in the plugin's insufficient handling of user-supplied email address parameters during form submission processing. When administrators subsequently trigger personal data export functionality, the stored malicious email data is incorporated into existing SQL queries without proper parameterization or escaping. This second order execution path allows attackers to inject malicious SQL commands that can be executed within the context of the database connection. The vulnerability stems from CWE-89, which specifically addresses SQL injection flaws where insufficient escaping of user input leads to unauthorized database access.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe as it enables unauthenticated attackers to exploit the system through a seemingly benign contact form submission. Once the malicious email address is stored in the database, any administrator who triggers the personal data export feature becomes a victim of the injection attack. This creates a window of opportunity where attackers can execute arbitrary SQL commands, potentially leading to data exfiltration, database modification, or even complete database compromise. The attack vector is particularly dangerous because it requires no authentication and can be triggered through normal form submission processes that administrators regularly perform.
Security mitigation strategies should focus on immediate patching of the affected plugin to version 3.7.2 or later, which contains the necessary fixes for the SQL injection vulnerability. Organizations should also implement input validation and sanitization measures at multiple layers, ensuring that all user-supplied data undergoes proper escaping before database insertion. Database access controls should be reviewed to limit the privileges of the application's database user account, reducing the potential impact of successful injection attacks. Additionally, monitoring systems should be configured to detect unusual database query patterns that might indicate SQL injection attempts, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1071.004 for application layer protocol manipulation. Regular security audits of WordPress plugins and themes should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities, with particular attention to the handling of user input in database operations and the implementation of proper prepared statements or parameterized queries.