CVE-2026-9189: Contact Form 7 – PayPal & Stripe Add-on <= 2.4.9 - Unauthenticated Payment Bypass via Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity via PayPal IPN Handler ('invoice'/'mc_gross' Verification)

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.3 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-05-29 · updated 2026-07-21
Weakness: CWE-345

Description

The Contact Form 7 – PayPal & Stripe Add-on plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Payment Bypass via Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity in all versions up to, and including, 2.4.9. Although `cf7pp_paypal_ipn_handler()` correctly validates IPN authenticity by posting back to PayPal with `cmd=_notify-validate`, it fails to compare the IPN payload's `mc_gross` (payment amount), `mc_currency`, or `receiver_email` fields against the corresponding stored order values before passing the attacker-controlled `invoice` field directly to `cf7pp_complete_payment()`, which marks the order completed after only an integer cast with no amount verification. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to mark arbitrary high-value pending orders as fully paid by making a minimal real PayPal payment and crafting an IPN whose `invoice` parameter references the targeted order, effectively completing purchases without tendering the required payment amount.

Affected products

Scott Paterson Contact Form 7 – PayPal & Stripe Add-on: through 2.4.9

References

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