CVE-2017-20194
📋 TL;DR
The Formidable Form Builder plugin for WordPress has an unauthenticated data exposure vulnerability that allows attackers to export all form entries without authentication. This affects WordPress sites using vulnerable plugin versions, potentially exposing sensitive user-submitted data like personal information, passwords, or payment details.
💻 Affected Systems
- Formidable Form Builder WordPress Plugin
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Mass exposure of all form submissions containing sensitive personal data, financial information, or credentials, leading to identity theft, financial fraud, or credential stuffing attacks.
Likely Case
Exposure of form entries containing personal identifiable information (PII), contact details, or other sensitive user data that could be used for phishing, spam, or targeted attacks.
If Mitigated
Limited exposure if forms don't collect sensitive data or if proper access controls and monitoring are in place to detect unauthorized export attempts.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires sending a crafted AJAX request to the vulnerable endpoint. No authentication or special privileges needed.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 2.05.04 and later
Vendor Advisory: https://formidableforms.com/
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Log into WordPress admin panel
2. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins
3. Find Formidable Form Builder
4. Click 'Update Now' if update available
5. If no update available, download latest version from WordPress repository
6. Deactivate old plugin, upload new version, activate
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable vulnerable AJAX endpoint
linuxRemove or restrict access to the frm_forms_preview AJAX action via .htaccess or web server configuration
# Add to .htaccess for Apache:
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} action=frm_forms_preview [NC]
RewriteRule ^wp-admin/admin-ajax\.php$ - [F,L]
Temporary plugin deactivation
allDeactivate Formidable Form Builder plugin until patched
wp plugin deactivate formidable
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement web application firewall (WAF) rules to block requests to the vulnerable frm_forms_preview AJAX endpoint
- Monitor and alert on unusual access patterns to admin-ajax.php with frm_forms_preview parameter
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check WordPress admin panel → Plugins → Formidable Form Builder version. If version is 2.05.03 or earlier, system is vulnerable.Check Version:
wp plugin list --name=formidable --field=versionVerify Fix Applied:
Verify plugin version is 2.05.04 or later in WordPress admin panel. Test that form entries cannot be exported without proper authentication.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- HTTP POST requests to /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php with 'action=frm_forms_preview' parameter from unauthenticated users
- Unusual spikes in admin-ajax.php requests
Network Indicators:
- Outbound data exfiltration patterns from WordPress server following admin-ajax.php requests
- Unusual JSON/CSV downloads from WordPress site
SIEM Query:
source="web_access_logs" AND uri="/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php" AND query="*action=frm_forms_preview*" AND NOT user_agent="*WordPress*"