---
title: "CVE-2026-97661: Business Essentials for Contact Form 7 - Stored XSS"
description: "Business Essentials for Contact Form 7 WordPress plugin <= 1.2.1 contains a stored cross-site scripting caused by insufficient input sanitization and output escaping in 'gateway' form field, letting unauthenticated attackers execute arbitrary scripts, exploit requires Payments module enabled and form configured for PayPal and Stripe."
url: https://panop.io/threat-heartbeat/CVE-2026-97661/
---

# CVE-2026-97661 Business Essentials for Contact Form 7 - Stored XSS

Business Essentials for Contact Form 7 WordPress plugin <= 1.2.1 contains a stored cross-site scripting caused by insufficient input sanitization and output escaping in 'gateway' form field, letting unauthenticated attackers execute arbitrary scripts, exploit requires Payments module enabled and form configured for PayPal and Stripe.

CVSS base score 7.2 /10

High

CISA KEV

Not listed

Public exploit

None known

Authentication

Not required

EPSS

0.24% chance of exploitation in 30 days

[View the NVD record ↗](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97661)

## Details

Type

Stored XSS

Impact

Stored XSS

CVSS vector

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

Published

1 October 2026

Updated

15 October 2026

Weakness

[CWE-79](https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/79.html)

## Vendor fix

Update to the latest version beyond 1.2.1.

Patching closes this CVE. It does not tell you which of your systems run the affected version, or what else is exposed alongside them.

## References

- [https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97661](https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97661)
- [https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/cf7-redirect-thank-you-page/tags/1.2.1/includes/modules/payments/cpt.php#L313](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/cf7-redirect-thank-you-page/tags/1.2.1/includes/modules/payments/cpt.php#L313)
- [https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/cf7-redirect-thank-you-page/tags/1.2.1/includes/modules/payments/functions.php#L15](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/cf7-redirect-thank-you-page/tags/1.2.1/includes/modules/payments/functions.php#L15)
- [https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/cf7-redirect-thank-you-page/tags/1.2.1/includes/modules/payments/redirect\_methods.php#L205](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/cf7-redirect-thank-you-page/tags/1.2.1/includes/modules/payments/redirect_methods.php#L205)
- [https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3713721/cf7-redirect-thank-you-page](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3713721/cf7-redirect-thank-you-page)
- [https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e6a60043-a060-472b-9b43-e82a4d2420b0?source=cve](https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e6a60043-a060-472b-9b43-e82a4d2420b0?source=cve)

[← All CVEs](https://panop.io/threat-heartbeat/)

## What this record can't tell you

- Whether you run the affected software, and where
- Whether an attacker can actually reach and exploit it
- The misconfigurations that never get a CVE number
- What it would cost the business, ranked into what to fix first

Panop answers these inside your environment, for this CVE and every other finding.

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