diff --git a/changelog.d/8438.issue b/changelog.d/8438.issue
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b67fff1ab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/8438.issue
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Preserve form action URLs and configured attributes with context-specific encoding
diff --git a/lib/html_form.php b/lib/html_form.php
index 30b35c490..69b633748 100644
--- a/lib/html_form.php
+++ b/lib/html_form.php
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ function draw_edit_form(array $array) : void {
 
 	if (cacti_sizeof($fields_array)) {
 		if (!isset($config_array['no_form_tag'])) {
-			print "<form class='cactiForm' method='post' autocomplete='off' action='" . ($config_array['post_to'] ?? get_current_page()) . "'" . ((isset($config_array['form_name'])) ? " name='" . $config_array['form_name'] . "'" : '') . ((isset($config_array['enctype'])) ? " enctype='" . $config_array['enctype'] . "'" : '') . '>';
+			print "<form class='cactiForm' method='post' autocomplete='off' action='" . html_escape_url($config_array['post_to'] ?? get_current_page()) . "'" . ((isset($config_array['form_name'])) ? " name='" . html_escape_attr($config_array['form_name']) . "'" : '') . ((isset($config_array['enctype'])) ? " enctype='" . html_escape_attr($config_array['enctype']) . "'" : '') . '>';
 		}
 
 		$i         = 0;
@@ -2180,7 +2180,7 @@ function form_start(mixed $action, string $id = '', bool $multipart = false) : v
 
 	$form_action = $action;
 
-	print "<form class='cactiFormStart' id='$form_id' name='$form_id' action='$form_action' autocomplete='off' method='post'" . ($multipart ? " enctype='multipart/form-data'" : '') . '>';
+	print "<form class='cactiFormStart' id='$form_id' name='$form_id' action='" . html_escape_url($form_action) . "' autocomplete='off' method='post'" . ($multipart ? " enctype='multipart/form-data'" : '') . '>';
 }
 
 /**
@@ -2277,7 +2277,7 @@ function form_end(bool $ajax = true) : void {
 			}
 
 			$(function() {
-				formValidate('#<?php print $form_id; ?>', '<?php print $form_action; ?>');
+				formValidate('#<?php print $form_id; ?>', <?php print cacti_js_encode((string) $form_action); ?>);
 			});
 		</script>
 		<?php
diff --git a/tests/Unit/Ui/Html/FormActionEncodingTest.php b/tests/Unit/Ui/Html/FormActionEncodingTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..834c2693a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Unit/Ui/Html/FormActionEncodingTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,170 @@
+<?php
+declare(strict_types = 1);
+/*
+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | Copyright (C) 2004-2026 The Cacti Group                                 |
+ |                                                                         |
+ | This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or           |
+ | modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License             |
+ | as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2          |
+ | of the License, or (at your option) any later version.                  |
+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | Cacti: The Complete RRDtool-based Graphing Solution                     |
+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+*/
+
+require_once dirname(__DIR__, 3) . '/Helpers/CactiStubs.php';
+require_once CACTI_PATH_INCLUDE . '/global.php';
+
+dataset('form action URLs', [
+	'plain'       => ['graphs.php'],
+	'query'       => ["/cacti/graphs.php?filter=Bob's switch&rows=20#results"],
+	'entities'    => ['/cacti/graphs.php?filter=&copy;&quot;&amp;'],
+	'Unicode'     => ["/cacti/graphs.php?filter=東京 \"switch\"\u{2028}next\u{2029}last"],
+	'script text' => ["/cacti/graphs.php?filter=</script><p>notes</p>\\'"],
+	'empty'       => [''],
+	'zero'        => ['0'],
+]);
+
+beforeEach(function () {
+	$this->savedFormGlobals = [];
+
+	foreach (['form_id', 'form_action', '_SESSION'] as $name) {
+		$this->savedFormGlobals[$name] = [
+			'present' => array_key_exists($name, $GLOBALS),
+			'value'   => $GLOBALS[$name] ?? null,
+		];
+	}
+});
+
+afterEach(function () {
+	foreach ($this->savedFormGlobals as $name => $saved) {
+		if ($saved['present']) {
+			$GLOBALS[$name] = $saved['value'];
+		} else {
+			unset($GLOBALS[$name]);
+		}
+	}
+});
+
+it('preserves form action URLs in HTML and AJAX initialization', function (string $action) {
+	ob_start();
+
+	try {
+		form_start($action, 'edit_form', true);
+		form_end();
+		$html = ob_get_contents();
+	} finally {
+		ob_end_clean();
+	}
+
+	$document = new DOMDocument();
+	$previous = libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
+
+	try {
+		expect($document->loadHTML('<?xml encoding="UTF-8">' . $html))->toBeTrue();
+	} finally {
+		libxml_clear_errors();
+		libxml_use_internal_errors($previous);
+	}
+
+	$forms = $document->getElementsByTagName('form');
+	expect($forms->length)->toBe(1);
+	$form = $forms->item(0);
+	expect($form->getAttribute('action'))->toBe($action)
+		->and($form->getAttribute('id'))->toBe('edit_form')
+		->and($form->getAttribute('name'))->toBe('edit_form')
+		->and($form->getAttribute('method'))->toBe('post')
+		->and($form->getAttribute('enctype'))->toBe('multipart/form-data')
+		->and($GLOBALS['form_action'])->toBe($action);
+
+	$scripts = $document->getElementsByTagName('script');
+	expect($scripts->length)->toBe(1);
+	$script = $scripts->item(0)->textContent;
+	expect(preg_match('/formValidate\(\'#edit_form\', (.*)\);/', $script, $matches))->toBe(1);
+	expect(json_decode($matches[1], true, 512, JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR))->toBe($action)
+		->and($document->getElementsByTagName('p')->length)->toBe(0);
+})->with('form action URLs');
+
+it('preserves configured edit form action URLs', function (string $action) {
+	ob_start();
+
+	try {
+		draw_edit_form([
+			'config' => ['post_to' => $action],
+			'fields' => ['id' => ['method' => 'hidden', 'value' => 7]],
+		]);
+		print '</form>';
+		$html = ob_get_contents();
+	} finally {
+		ob_end_clean();
+	}
+
+	$document = new DOMDocument();
+	$previous = libxml_use_internal_errors(true);
+
+	try {
+		expect($document->loadHTML('<?xml encoding="UTF-8">' . $html))->toBeTrue();
+	} finally {
+		libxml_clear_errors();
+		libxml_use_internal_errors($previous);
+	}
+
+	$forms = $document->getElementsByTagName('form');
+	expect($forms->length)->toBe(1)
+		->and($forms->item(0)->getAttribute('action'))->toBe($action)
+		->and($forms->item(0)->getAttribute('method'))->toBe('post')
+		->and($document->getElementsByTagName('input')->item(0)->getAttribute('value'))->toBe('7')
+		->and($document->getElementsByTagName('script')->length)->toBe(0);
+})->with('form action URLs');
+
+it('preserves generated form IDs and the non-AJAX form mode', function () {
+	$ids = [];
+
+	for ($i = 0; $i < 2; $i++) {
+		ob_start();
+
+		try {
+			form_start('edit.php');
+			$ids[] = $GLOBALS['form_id'];
+			form_end(false);
+			$html = ob_get_contents();
+		} finally {
+			ob_end_clean();
+		}
+
+		expect($html)->not->toContain('<script')
+			->not->toContain('multipart/form-data')
+			->toContain('</form>');
+	}
+
+	expect($ids[0])->toMatch('/^form[0-9]+$/')
+		->and($ids[1])->toMatch('/^form[0-9]+$/')
+		->not->toBe($ids[0]);
+});
+
+it('keeps configured form attributes as literal values', function (string $name, string $enctype) {
+	ob_start();
+
+	try {
+		draw_edit_form([
+			'config' => ['post_to' => 'edit.php', 'form_name' => $name, 'enctype' => $enctype],
+			'fields' => ['id' => ['method' => 'hidden', 'value' => 7]],
+		]);
+		print '</form>';
+		$html = ob_get_contents();
+	} finally {
+		ob_end_clean();
+	}
+
+	$document = new DOMDocument();
+	expect($document->loadHTML($html))->toBeTrue();
+	$form = $document->getElementsByTagName('form')->item(0);
+	expect($form->getAttribute('name'))->toBe($name)
+		->and($form->getAttribute('enctype'))->toBe($enctype)
+		->and($form->attributes->length)->toBe(6);
+})->with([
+	'normal'                   => ['edit_form', 'multipart/form-data'],
+	'name quotes and entities' => ["Bob's &quot;form", 'multipart/form-data'],
+	'enctype quoting'          => ['edit_form', "multipart/form-data' data-extra='value"],
+]);