Vulnerability · Published Sep 19, 2026 · Assigned by Wordfence
CVE-2026-89093Better Messages <= 2.15.33 - Unauthenticated Information Exposure Spoofing via 'X-Real-IP' Header via /guests/register
Medium 5.3
In plain English
A medium-severity improper authentication in Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots from wordplus. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 26% of all known vulnerabilities).
Official description
The Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Information Exposure by Spoofing in all versions up to, and including, 2.15.33. This is due to the `is_ai_bot_user()` function identifying privileged internal AI bot accounts by performing a prefix check for `'ai-chat-bot-'` against a guest record's stored IP address, which is populated verbatim from the client-controlled `X-Real-IP` request header during unauthenticated guest registration. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to register a guest identity that the plugin treats as its own internal AI bot, bypassing the per-room role allowlist, draft-status check, and join filters — which are all short-circuited by the bot check in `user_can_join()` and `user_can_read()` — to join administrator-restricted chat rooms, post messages into them, and read the private message history of other users.
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| wordplus | Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots | 0 – through 2.15.33 |
Weakness: CWE-287 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
References
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/df28ecd7-d463-48b7-95e6-8adc9f34d6bd?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/bp-better-messages/tags/2.15.33/inc/functions.php#L4155
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/bp-better-messages/tags/2.15.33/inc/chats.php#L2145
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/bp-better-messages/tags/2.15.33/inc/chats.php#L2168
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/bp-better-messages/tags/2.15.33/inc/chats.php#L2196
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/bp-better-messages/tags/2.15.33/inc/guests.php#L577
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/bp-better-messages/tags/2.15.33/inc/guests.php#L467
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/bp-better-messages/tags/2.15.33/inc/guests.php#L311
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?old_path=bp-better-messages%2Ftags%2F2.15.33%2Finc%2Ffunctions.php&new_path=bp-better-messages%2Ftags%2F3.0.0%2Finc%2Ffunctions.php