Security Resilience

CVE-2026-16230

Path Traversal

Path Traversal
Published
11 August 2026
Modified
12 August 2026
CVSS Score v3.1 9.8
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0067 51th percentile
Risk Priority 72 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2026-16230 is a critical-severity Relative Path Traversal (CWE-23) vulnerability in Formidableforms (inferred from references). Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, ranked in the top 49% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

The Formidable Digital Signatures plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to file deletion due to insufficient file path validation in the delete_file function in all versions up to, and including, 3.0.6. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to delete files…

more

on the server by supplying an attacker-controlled filename in the item_meta[field_id][content] parameter alongside the delete_saved_image flag during the standard entry-creation POST flow on any form that accepts anonymous submissions.

CWE(s)
CWE-23

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-45188Shared CWE-23
CVE-2026-81849Shared CWE-23
CVE-2026-33494Shared CWE-23
CVE-2026-76440Shared CWE-23
CVE-2024-47856Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-2007Shared CWE-23
CVE-2024-43614Shared CWE-23
CVE-2026-16053Shared CWE-23
CVE-2023-23379Shared CWE-23
CVE-2025-49466Shared CWE-23

Affected Assets

Formidableforms
—
inferred from references and description; NVD did not file a CPE for this CVE

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V5.3.2

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

Explicit validation of path inputs stops .. sequences from ever being interpreted by the file system.

AC-3 Access Enforcement partial match

Access enforcement directly blocks unauthorized file reads/writes that result from unresolved .. sequences.

AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement partial match

Information-flow rules can be configured to reject traversals that would move data outside an approved directory boundary.

AC-6 Least Privilege partial match

Least privilege reduces the set of reachable files even when a traversal succeeds.

SA-8 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles partial match

Secure-engineering principles require safe pathname construction and input neutralization before any file operation.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
blocks

Secure SDLC practices directly require input validation and path sanitization that prevent relative traversal.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing in development catches path traversal via static/dynamic analysis, but does not itself implement the fix.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding standards require neutralizing path traversal sequences, directly addressing CWE-23.

References