CVE-2026-89093 Better Messages <= 2.15.33 - Unauthenticated Information Exposure Spoofing via 'X-Real-IP' Header via /guests/register
Unauthenticated attackers can spoof IP headers to impersonate AI bots, bypassing access controls to read and post in restricted chat rooms.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-89093?
CVE-2026-89093 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in wordplus Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots, published on 19 Sep 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
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.
Weakness: CWE-287
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-89093?
How do I fix CVE-2026-89093?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-89093 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.
Is CVE-2026-89093 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-89093 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-53vp-fjc5-cqj6.