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And Chat - Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) (CVE-2026-16548)

CVE-2026-16548

The Chat Widget: Floating Customer Support Button for 30+ Channels, Supporting SMS, Calls, and Chat WordPress plugin before 1.8.2 does not validate the type, extension, content, or size of files submitted to its public response endpoint and stores them under the uploads directory, so an unauthenticated user can upload arbitrary files. The original extension is discarded (files are stored under a bare UUID), so this does not yield code execution or stored XSS; impact is bounded to disk consumption and content hosting. The storing path requires the channel's response storage or mail-forwarding to be configured.

CVE-2026-16548

MEDIUM CVSS 6.5 Published 2026-08-04 Updated 2026-08-26
AI Risk Elevated (62/100) Active Exploit: No strong signal Published Exploit: No public exploit references Priority: P3 Priority
Severity Band MEDIUM
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
Affected Components 2
Reference Links 1
AI Risk Engine Elevated (62/100)
Exploitability Medium
Active Exploitation No strong signal
Published Exploit Status No public exploit references

Threat Timeline

  1. 2026-08-04 CVE published and first recorded in the threat feed.
  2. 2026-08-26 Record updated with latest vulnerability metadata.
  3. 2026-08-11 AI technical context refreshed for mitigation and impact guidance.
  4. Now Monitoring for follow-up changes, linked references, and new related CVEs.

AI Context

Machine-generated threat intelligence

AI Updated 24 days ago

AI enriched 24 days ago (2026-08-11 22:30 UTC)

Technical Summary

The Chat Widget: Floating Customer Support Button for 30+ Channels, Supporting SMS, Calls, and Chat WordPress plugin before 1.8.2 does not validate the type, extension, content, or size of files submitted to its public response endpoint and stores them under the uploads directory, so an unauthenticated user can upload arbitrary files. The original extension is discarded (files are stored under a bare UUID), so this does not yield code execution or stored XSS; impact is bounded to disk consumption and…

Potential Impact

Severity is MEDIUM (CVSS 6.5). Depending on deployment context, affected components may be exposed to unauthorized actions or data integrity risk.

Exploitability Assessment

Exploitability is assessed as Medium based on low-bar exploit prerequisites.

Primary risk drivers: low-bar exploit prerequisites

Mitigation Recommendations

Validate affected product versions, prioritize patching, and monitor references for vendor remediation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, apply compensating controls and limit exposure of vulnerable surfaces.

Detection & Monitoring

Track authentication anomalies, unexpected file writes, and suspicious plugin API activity around affected components.

Business Impact Lens

AI risk score 62/100 (Elevated, Medium) with priority P3 Priority. Prioritize remediation where affected components process customer data, admin sessions, or Internet-exposed workflows.

Affected Products

And Chat PLUGIN · and-chat Affected: < 1.8.2 Fixed in: 1.8.2
Chat Widget PLUGIN · chat-widget Affected: < 1.8.2 Fixed in: 1.8.2

References

What to do about this

Patch promptly The consequence is significant even where an attacker needs a foothold first.

Fix it

Update And Chat to 1.8.2 or later.

That is the complete fix. Everything below is what protects you in the meantime.

Cannot update today? Request / payload inspection (WAF) in Hack Halt ProSecure blocks this class of attack before WordPress processes the request.

Inspect request parameters and bodies for injection, traversal and file-inclusion payloads, and refuse the request rather than logging it.

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Not sure if you are affected?

Scan your site to see whether it runs And Chat, and at which version.

Free, no installation, no account. It reads what your site already publishes, then tells you which plugins carry known vulnerabilities and what to do about each one.

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Am I affected by this vulnerability?

You are affected if your site runs And Chat. Versions below 1.8.2 are vulnerable; that release and later are not. No account is needed to exploit this, so a public site is reachable by anyone.

How do I fix it?

Update And Chat to version 1.8.2 or later. That is the complete fix. Until you can update, Request / payload inspection (WAF) in Hack Halt ProSecure contains this class of attack at the request layer.

What can an attacker actually do?

This is a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) flaw. An attacker who exploits it can run script in a visitor's browser, stealing sessions or planting an administrator account.