CVE-2026-16955 AI Engine < 3.6.6 - Subscriber+ Arbitrary File Read via Audio Transcription
Subscribers can read arbitrary server files and exfiltrate them if a non-default public API feature is enabled, exposing sensitive data.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-16955?
CVE-2026-16955 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Unknown AI Engine, published on 8 Aug 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
The AI Engine WordPress plugin before 3.6.6 does not confine a caller-supplied file path before reading it and forwarding the contents to an external service, allowing users with a subscriber-level account to read arbitrary files from the server and exfiltrate them off-host. Reaching the issue at subscriber level requires a non-default public API feature to be enabled; otherwise the same issue is reachable by an administrator, which on multisite allows a non-super subsite administrator to read the network-shared configuration and its secrets.
Weakness: CWE-22
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-16955?
How do I fix CVE-2026-16955?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-16955 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.
Is CVE-2026-16955 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-16955 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-hgr8-39c9-344p.