CVE-2026-16585
Description
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.
Affected products
1- Range: <=2.15.19
Patches
Vulnerability mechanics
References
6- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/bp-better-messages/tags/2.15.19/addons/stickers/pack-manager.phpnvd
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/bp-better-messages/tags/2.15.19/addons/stickers/rest.phpnvd
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/bp-better-messages/tags/2.15.19/addons/stickers/rest.phpnvd
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/bp-better-messages/tags/2.15.19/addons/stickers/rest.phpnvd
- plugins.trac.wordpress.org/changeset/3623636/bp-better-messages/trunk/addons/stickers/rest.phpnvd
- www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/e9274957-7584-4df6-bb2a-d745510f5033nvd
News mentions
2- Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (August 3, 2026 to August 9, 2026)Wordfence Blog · Aug 14, 2026
- Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (July 27, 2026 to August 2, 2026)Wordfence Blog · Aug 8, 2026