# CVE-2026-96561: Cross-site scripting in AI Engine – The Chatbot, AI Framework & MCP for WordPress

> Unauthenticated attackers can inject scripts into the WordPress dashboard via a complex log injection chain, potentially compromising administrator accounts.

- **Severity:** High 7.2 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 1 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 1 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-h282-rvgq-85qj

## What is CVE-2026-96561?

CVE-2026-96561 is a high-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in tigroumeow AI Engine – The Chatbot, AI Framework & MCP for WordPress, published on 1 Oct 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The AI Engine – The Chatbot, AI Framework & MCP for WordPress plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting in versions up to, and including, 3.8.0 This is due to a chain of missing input neutralization and output escaping across the /mwai-ui/v1/chats/submit REST endpoint, the PHP error-log parser (MeowKit_MWAI_Helpers::php_error_logs), the Advisor task (Meow_MWAI_Modules_Advisor::run_advisor), and the Advisor dashboard widget (advisor_metabox): the server-parameter denylist in chat_submit strips only exact key names such as 'model' while convert_keys() later canonicalizes 'model_' back to 'model', allowing an unauthenticated caller to place an attacker-controlled string (including CR/LF) into $query->model; final_checks() throws an Exception whose message embeds that raw string, and the non-streaming, non-admin catch branch writes it to the PHP error log unmodified — creating a forged log line that the plugin's own parser subsequently returns as recent PHP-error content; run_advisor() then appends that content verbatim to the AI prompt (indirect prompt injection — CWE-1427), the returned JSON is stored in the mwai_advisor_data option with no schema validation or HTML sanitization, and advisor_metabox() concatenates the resulting 'title' and 'description' values directly into the WordPress dashboard widget without esc_html(), wp_kses(), or equivalent escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever an administrator accesses the WordPress dashboard.

Weakness: CWE-79 (Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-96561?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-96561?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-96561 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-96561 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-96561 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-96561 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-96561 is a high-severity cross-site scripting vulnerability in tigroumeow AI Engine – The Chatbot, AI Framework & MCP for WordPress, published on 1 Oct 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-96561 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: tigroumeow AI Engine – The Chatbot, AI Framework & MCP for WordPress. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-96561/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-96561/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-96561
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-96561
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-96561

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-96561/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.