CVE-2026-16774
Description
The Chatbot plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Missing Authorization in versions up to, and including, 8.5.9 via the wpcs_send_email() AJAX handler. This is due to the wpcs_send_email() function being registered on both wp_ajax_wpcs_send_email and wp_ajax_nopriv_wpcs_send_email with no nonce verification, capability check, or rate limiting, while forwarding attacker-controlled recipient, subject, and body directly to wp_mail(). This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to send arbitrary emails to any recipient from the site's domain, enabling spam, phishing, and abuse that can lead to the site's IP/domain being blacklisted.
Predictions
Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.
Mitigations
No mitigations published for this CVE yet.
The vendor-content worker queues fetches as references arrive (check back in a few minutes). Or โ if you've already worked around this in production โ publish your fix to the community-verified tier.
โ Propose a mitigation on Community โ Mitigations published via the community go through AI scoring + 2 human reviewers + 7-day silent objection window before landing here withsource_tier=community-verified.
References
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/chatbot/tags/8.5.9/includes/chat-sessions/wpbot-chat-sessions.php#L478
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/chatbot/tags/8.5.9/includes/chat-sessions/wpbot-chat-sessions.php#L483
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/chatbot/tags/8.5.9/includes/chat-sessions/wpbot-chat-sessions.php#L494
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset?reponame=&old=3621386%40chatbot&new=3621386%40chatbot
- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/3cc6aa06-ab2a-4d5c-bbbe-4c19722ccc53?source=cve
CWEs
CWE-862
Community-verified mitigations for this CVE will appear above when contributors publish them.
Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.