Path Traversal in Wordplus Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private & Ai Bots

CVE-2026-16585

The Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to arbitrary file deletion due to insufficient file path validation in the delete_sticker function in all versions up to, and including, 2.15.19. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with administrator-level access and above, to delete arbitrary files on the server, which can easily lead to remote code execution when the right file is deleted (such as wp-config.php). The prefix check intended to restrict deletion to the uploads directory can be bypassed by crafting a URL that begins with the legitimate uploads base URL but embeds ../ traversal sequences in the path portion, as the normalize_sticker function only applies esc_url_raw(), which does not strip ../ sequences, allowing the traversal payload to be stored verbatim in WordPress options.

Vulnerability class: Path Traversal (Directory Traversal)

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.2 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.012 (67.0th percentile), scored .

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 67th percentile — 67.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-16585: held from 0.012 to 0.012.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.012 · newest: 0.012 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-16585?
CVE-2026-16585 is a high-severity vulnerability in Wordplus Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private & Ai Bots, classified under Path Traversal. CVSS score: 7.2/10. Published 2026-07-28.
How severe is CVE-2026-16585?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.2 out of 10.