CVE-2026-16548

Bit Assist <= 1.8.1 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Upload

2026-07-27 00:00
Vaibhav Narkhede

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 1.8.2
Affected Plugin
Chat Widget: Floating Customer Support Button for 30+ Channels, Supporting SMS, Calls, and Chat – Bit Assist
Affected Version
<= 1.8.1
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-434 · Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type
CVE
CVE-2026-16548
View all Chat Widget: Floating Customer Support Button for 30+ Channels, Supporting SMS, Calls, and Chat – Bit Assist vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-16548 is a critical-severity Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type vulnerability in the Chat Widget: Floating Customer Support Button for 30+ Channels, Supporting SMS, Calls, and Chat WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 1.8.1. It carries a CVSS score of 9.8 (reachable over the network; low attack complexity; high confidentiality, integrity, availability impact). Exploitation requires no authentication. The issue is fixed in version 1.8.2; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed July 2026, reported by Vaibhav Narkhede.

Vulnerability Overview

The Bit Assist plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Arbitrary File Upload in versions up to, and including, 1.8.1. This is due to missing file type validation in the file upload handler, allowing any file extension to be stored without checking against a blocklist or WordPress MIME allowlist. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to upload arbitrary files, including executable PHP scripts, to the server and achieve remote code execution.

Technical Analysis

The vector marks this flaw as remotely reachable over the network, with low attack complexity — no special timing or configuration is needed, and no privileges on the target site, and no interaction from a victim user. A successful exploit has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability — full site compromise territory.

CWE-434: Unrestricted Upload of File with Dangerous Type

Reaching this weakness in Chat Widget: Floating Customer Support Button for 30+ Channels, Supporting SMS, Calls, and Chat <= 1.8.1 takes no account at all. An unrestricted file upload lets a caller store a file whose type or destination the application does not properly constrain.

If an uploaded file lands anywhere the server will execute, the flaw becomes remote code execution and the site should be treated as fully compromised. For Chat Widget: Floating Customer Support Button for 30+ Channels, Supporting SMS, Calls, and Chat the fix is 1.8.2: builds <= 1.8.1 are affected, anything from 1.8.2 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 1.8.2, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Requests carrying this pattern arrive without a session, so nothing upstream of the firewall gets a chance to reject them: WordSec's web application firewall inspects request payloads before WordPress loads them. Classes like this one can leave something behind, so the staged malware scanner is the second half: it looks for dropped files and modified code rather than for the request that created them. None of that substitutes for the fix: Chat Widget: Floating Customer Support Button for 30+ Channels, Supporting SMS, Calls, and Chat 1.8.2 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Firewall
  • Scanner
  • Login Security

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-16548https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/3a57bbf9-bb53-4040-9c38-4798852a6fb4https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-16548

Related records

Vulnerability data © Defiant, Inc., provided under the Wordfence Intelligence T&C