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CVE-2026-16144 – Unauthenticated Remote Code Execution – Kali Forms (Contact Form & Drag-and-Drop Bu

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Summary

CVE-2026-16144 is an unauthenticated remote code execution (Code Injection, CWE-94) vulnerability in the Kali Forms — Contact Form & Drag-and-Drop Builder plugin for WordPress, affecting all versions up to and including 2.4.20. It carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.1 (HIGH), as unauthenticated attackers can execute arbitrary code on the server.

Technical details

  • Root cause: Insufficient validation of the thisPermalink field value in the _save_data function allows an attacker-controlled string to overwrite a trusted callable placeholder, which then reaches call_user_func().
  • Trigger conditions: Exploitation requires the target form to define a field with a name matching one of the reserved placeholder keys (thisPermalink, entryCounter, or submission_link), because check_if_placeholders_changed() only processes POST keys present in the form’s field_type_map.
  • Attack vector: Network-based, requiring no authentication and no user interaction; attack complexity is rated High.
  • Impact: Arbitrary code execution on the server, resulting in full compromise of confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Affected software

  • Kali Forms — Contact Form & Drag-and-Drop Builder for WordPress: all versions up to and including 2.4.20.

Severity

  • CVSS v3.1 base score: 8.1 (HIGH)
  • Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: Update Kali Forms to version 2.4.21 or later, which restores reserved internal placeholder callbacks after placeholder updates and invokes them only from trusted defaults.
  • If no patch can be applied: Review forms for fields named thisPermalink, entryCounter, or submission_link and remove or rename them; restrict network access to form submission endpoints and apply web application firewall rules to block requests attempting to set these reserved placeholder keys.

How IONIX identifies potentially affected assets

IONIX matches the following signals against data already collected when it crawled the asset; identifying the technology sends no request beyond that crawl.

  • Raw response body: /wp-content/plugins/kali-forms/

References

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How IONIX’s External Exposure Management Platform Detects and Validates
Zero-Days to Shrink MTTR

1

Map your entire attack surface (continously)

IONIX uses multi-factor discovery methods, including DNS analysis, certificate mapping, metadata inspection, and more, to automatically map every internet-facing asset across your environment. This includes cloud instances, third-party platforms, shadow IT, and even forgotten infrastructure that traditional tools miss.

2

Monitor for new CVEs

Dozens of threat intel feeds using agentic technology are continuously analyzed to detect the appearance of proof-of-concept code, exploit kits, and indicators of active targeting. IONIX goes further by applying AI to proactively evaluate whether emerging vulnerabilities are likely to be exploited, even before PoCs go public.

3

Identify Potential External Exposures

Not all CVEs matter. IONIX filters vulnerabilities by asking attacker-centric questions: Can it be reached from the internet? Does it require authentication? Is it being exploited in the wild? This dramatically reduces noise and focuses teams on threats that can actually be weaponized.

4

Create Safe, Scalable Exploit Validations

IONIX transforms real-world PoCs into safe, non-intrusive test payloads that can be run in production environments without disruption. These simulations are precisely targeted to the systems that are vulnerable, ensuring rapid validation without unnecessary load.

5

Execute Exploit Validations

By combining context about software stack, versioning, exposure status, and reachability, IONIX ensures that only the right payloads are executed against the right assets, maximizing efficiency and minimizing risk.

6

Drive Fast and Actionable Remediation

Results are routed through integrations with ticketing, SOAR, and SIEM tools. Issues are written in plain language, bundled into remediation clusters, and prioritized based on asset criticality, exploitability, and blast radius. This shortens mean time to remediation (MTTR) and empowers teams to act with confidence.

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  • Identification of potentially exposed assets to this CVE
  • Confirmation of verified exploitable assets
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