Is Better Messages safe? Known vulnerabilities and latest version

Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in wordplus BP Better Messages bp-better-messages allows DOM-Based XSS.This issue affects BP Better Messages: from n/a through 3.1.3.

The Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to generic SQL Injection via 'group_id' Message Meta Parameter in all versions up to, and including, 3.0.4 due to insufficient escaping on the user supplied parameter and lack of sufficient preparation on the existing SQL query. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to append additional SQL queries into already existing queries that can be used to extract sensitive information from the database. Exploitation requires the BuddyBoss Platform plugin to be installed with its Social Groups component disabled, a state that persists on any site that has previously toggled the Groups component off since BuddyBoss does not drop the wp_bp_groups table upon deactivation.

The Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored DOM-Based Cross-Site Scripting via User Display Name in all versions up to, and including, 3.0.4 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with subscriber-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page. This is exploitable by Subscriber-level users because WordPress core's sanitize_text_field() preserves HTML-entity-encoded payloads (e.g., an iframe srcdoc attribute), allowing the encoded string to be stored as a display name without requiring the unfiltered_html capability, and the plugin subsequently decodes it server-side before rendering.

The Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Information Exposure by Spoofing in all versions up to, and including, 2.15.33. This is due to the `is_ai_bot_user()` function identifying privileged internal AI bot accounts by performing a prefix check for `'ai-chat-bot-'` against a guest record's stored IP address, which is populated verbatim from the client-controlled `X-Real-IP` request header during unauthenticated guest registration. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to register a guest identity that the plugin treats as its own internal AI bot, bypassing the per-room role allowlist, draft-status check, and join filters — which are all short-circuited by the bot check in `user_can_join()` and `user_can_read()` — to join administrator-restricted chat rooms, post messages into them, and read the private message history of other users.

The Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass in all versions up to, and including, 2.15.33. This is due to the plugin not properly verifying that a user is authorized to perform an action. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with custom-level access and above, to access the full message transcript, thread metadata, and user data of any chat-room thread without authentication. This is only exploitable when the chat room's only_joined_can_read setting retains its default value of '0'.

The Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via the 'icn' parameter in all versions up to, and including, 2.15.22 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that execute if they can successfully trick a user into performing an action such as clicking on a link.

Unauthenticated Cross Site Scripting (XSS) in BP Better Messages <= 2.15.27 versions.

Unauthenticated Cross Site Scripting (XSS) in BP Better Messages <= 2.15.22 versions.

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.

Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key vulnerability in wordplus BP Better Messages bp-better-messages allows Exploiting Incorrectly Configured Access Control Security Levels.This issue affects BP Better Messages: from n/a through <= 2.14.16.

The Better Messages – Live Chat for WordPress, BuddyPress, PeepSo, Ultimate Member, BuddyBoss plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via guest display name in all versions up to, and including, 2.10.2 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

The Better Messages – Live Chat for WordPress, BuddyPress, PeepSo, Ultimate Member, BuddyBoss plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Sensitive Information Exposure in all versions up to, and including, 2.6.9 via the 'bp-better-messages' directory. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to extract sensitive data stored insecurely in the /wp-content/uploads/bp-better-messages directory which can contain file attachments included in chat messages.

The Better Messages – Live Chat for WordPress, BuddyPress, PeepSo, Ultimate Member, BuddyBoss plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Server-Side Request Forgery in all versions up to, and including, 2.7.4 via the 'nice_links'. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to make web requests to arbitrary locations originating from the web application and can be used to query and modify information from internal services. Successful exploitation requires the "Enable link previews" to be enabled (default).

The Better Messages – Live Chat for WordPress, BuddyPress, PeepSo, Ultimate Member, BuddyBoss plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the plugin's 'better_messages_live_chat_button' shortcode in all versions up to, and including, 2.6.9 due to insufficient input sanitization and output escaping on user supplied attributes. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with contributor-level access and above, to inject arbitrary web scripts in pages that will execute whenever a user accesses an injected page.

Missing Authorization vulnerability in WordPlus BP Better Messages allows Accessing Functionality Not Properly Constrained by ACLs.This issue affects BP Better Messages: from n/a through 2.4.32.

Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') vulnerability in WordPlus Better Messages – Live Chat for WordPress, BuddyPress, PeepSo, Ultimate Member, BuddyBoss allows Stored XSS.This issue affects Better Messages – Live Chat for WordPress, BuddyPress, PeepSo, Ultimate Member, BuddyBoss: from n/a through 2.4.0.

Auth. (subscriber+) Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in Better Messages plugin 1.9.10.68 on WordPress.

Auth. (subscriber+) Messaging Block Bypass vulnerability in Better Messages plugin <= 1.9.10.69 on WordPress.

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in WordPlus Better Messages plugin <= 1.9.9.148 at WordPress.

Authenticated (subscriber+) Denial Of Service (DoS) vulnerability in WordPlus WordPress Better Messages plugin <= 1.9.10.57 at WordPress.

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in WordPlus Better Messages plugin <= 1.9.9.148 at WordPress allows attackers to upload files. File attachment to messages must be activated.

The BP Better Messages WordPress plugin before 1.9.9.41 sanitise (with sanitize_text_field) but does not escape the 'subject' parameter before outputting it back in an attribute, leading to a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting issue

The BP Better Messages WordPress plugin before 1.9.9.41 does not check for CSRF in multiple of its AJAX actions: bp_better_messages_leave_chat, bp_better_messages_join_chat, bp_messages_leave_thread, bp_messages_mute_thread, bp_messages_unmute_thread, bp_better_messages_add_user_to_thread, bp_better_messages_exclude_user_from_thread. This could allow attackers to make logged in users do unwanted actions