CVE-2026-19500 in SureForms Plugin
Summary
by MITRE • 08/18/2026
The Entries component in Brainstorm Force SureForms version, less than 2.1.3, does not enforce adequate limits on user-controlled form fields or submitted content during processing and rendering, which allows a remote attacker to exhaust server resources, prevent administrators from accessing the Entries interface, and trigger HTTP 500 errors via crafted form submissions.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/18/2026
The vulnerability identified in Brainstorm Force SureForms versions prior to 2.1.3 represents a significant resource exhaustion flaw within the plugin's entries processing component. This security issue stems from an insufficient validation of limits applied to user-controlled form fields and submitted content during both the processing and rendering phases. By failing to enforce adequate constraints on input size, complexity, or volume, the application becomes susceptible to denial-of-service conditions triggered by remote attackers. The core technical flaw lies in the lack of robust sanitization and rate-limiting mechanisms when handling incoming data from web forms, allowing malicious actors to submit payloads designed to consume excessive server resources such as CPU cycles, memory, or database connections without triggering appropriate error-handling protocols that would normally abort the operation before critical thresholds are reached.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability allows a remote attacker to exhaust server resources effectively, leading to service degradation for legitimate users and preventing administrators from accessing the Entries interface within the WordPress dashboard. The immediate impact includes the generation of HTTP 500 Internal Server Error responses when crafted form submissions are processed, indicating that the application fails gracefully under load or malicious input conditions. This not only disrupts business continuity by making critical administrative functions unavailable but also exposes the underlying infrastructure to further exploitation if the resource exhaustion leads to system instability or crashes. The inability of administrators to access the Entries interface hinders incident response capabilities and obscures visibility into potential ongoing attacks, thereby compounding the severity of the denial-of-service effect.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write in contexts where memory allocation fails due to excessive input size, as well as CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, which directly addresses scenarios where an application does not properly limit resource usage based on user input. In terms of the MITRE ATT&CK framework, this behavior is characteristic of T1498 Network Denial of Service, specifically reflecting techniques that involve flooding a target with requests to exhaust resources rather than exploiting code execution flaws for direct system compromise. The attack vector leverages standard web form submission mechanisms, making it accessible via HTTP/HTTPS protocols without requiring authentication, thus classifying it as an unauthenticated remote vulnerability.
To mitigate this risk, organizations should immediately upgrade Brainstorm Force SureForms to version 2.1.3 or later, where these input validation and resource limit enforcement issues have been addressed by the developers. In environments where immediate patching is not feasible, implementing web application firewall rules can help filter out excessively large form submissions or malformed data structures before they reach the application logic. Additionally, configuring server-level timeouts and memory limits for PHP processes can provide a secondary layer of defense against resource exhaustion attacks. Regular monitoring of server metrics such as CPU usage, memory consumption, and HTTP error rates is recommended to detect potential abuse patterns early, allowing security teams to respond proactively to attempts at exploiting this vulnerability before significant service disruption occurs.