CVE-2026-94256

SMS Alert <= 4.0.0 - Unauthenticated Arbitrary Account Takeover

2026-10-08 00:00
Raphael P. Cigana

Strategic Overview

Status
Patched in 4.0.1
Affected Plugin
SMS Alert – SMS Notifications & OTP Login, COD Verification, Abandoned Cart Recovery
Affected Version
<= 4.0.0
CVSS
9.8Critical
Weakness type
CWE-287 · Improper Authentication
CVE
CVE-2026-94256
View all SMS Alert – SMS Notifications & OTP Login, COD Verification, Abandoned Cart Recovery vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-94256 is a critical-severity Improper Authentication vulnerability in the SMS Alert WordPress plugin, affecting versions <= 4.0.0. 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 4.0.1; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed October 2026, reported by Raphael P. Cigana.

Vulnerability Overview

The SMS Alert plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Account Takeover in all versions up to, and including, 4.0.0. This is due to missing verification that the OTP-validated phone number in the session belongs to the account being authenticated, allowing the session phone to be mismatched with the login target. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to sign in as any WordPress user, including administrators, by completing an OTP challenge with their own phone number and then supplying a victim's username, without needing the victim's phone. The targeted user account must have a stored phone number in their profile meta.

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-287: Improper Authentication

Reaching this weakness in SMS Alert <= 4.0.0 takes no account at all. Improper authentication means the mechanism that proves who a caller is can be satisfied without the secret it was supposed to require.

An attacker authenticates as another user — administrators included — without ever knowing a password, so password policies and login rate limits never come into play. For SMS Alert the fix is 4.0.1: builds <= 4.0.0 are affected, anything from 4.0.1 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 4.0.1, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

This one needs no account at all, which puts it outside what login hardening can reach; WordSec's login security narrows the account-level paths around it, and the firewall is what inspects the request itself. None of that substitutes for the fix: SMS Alert 4.0.1 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

  • Login Security
  • Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-94256https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/4666afa0-619c-489c-b165-9dd11365aa8dhttps://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-94256

Related records

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