CVE-2026-15206

SMS Alert – SMS & OTP for WooCommerce, Order Notifications & Abandoned Cart Recovery < 3.9.8 - Authentication Bypass via Account Takeover

2026-08-24 00:00

Strategic Overview

Status: Patched in 3.9.8
Affected Plugin: SMS Alert – SMS & OTP for WooCommerce, Order Notifications & Abandoned Cart Recovery
Affected Version: < 3.9.8
CVSS: 9.8Critical
Weakness type: CWE-287 · Improper Authentication
CVE: CVE-2026-15206

View all SMS Alert – SMS & OTP for WooCommerce, Order Notifications & Abandoned Cart Recovery vulnerabilities

At a glance

CVE-2026-15206 is a critical-severity Improper Authentication vulnerability in the SMS Alert WordPress plugin, affecting versions < 3.9.8. 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 3.9.8; sites on affected versions should update now. Disclosed August 2026, reported by Sai Praneeth Koti.

Vulnerability Overview

The SMS Alert – SMS & OTP for WooCommerce, Order Notifications & Abandoned Cart Recovery plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass in all versions up to 3.9.8 (exclusive). This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to bypass authentication and access other user's accounts, including administrators.

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 < 3.9.8 takes a caller who can reach the endpoint. 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 3.9.8: builds < 3.9.8 are affected, anything from 3.9.8 onward is not.

Remediation

Update to version 3.9.8, or a newer patched version

How does WordSec protect against this?

Because it turns on account access, WordSec's login security is the relevant layer: role-based two-factor, captcha and brute-force limits raise the cost of getting the account this needs. None of that substitutes for the fix: SMS Alert 3.9.8 closes this, and updating the plugin is the step that ends it.

Login Security
Alerts

External References

https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-15206 https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/6b8ba516-54f8-4422-846a-106b9e8bca8d https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-15206

Related records

Same weakness class

9.8CVE-2026-11387: SMS Alert <= 3.9.5 Privilege EscalationCVE-2026-11387

Other vulnerabilities in SMS Alert – SMS & OTP for WooCommerce, Order Notifications & Abandoned Cart Recovery

CVSS Vector

9.8

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Base

Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh

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