# AI Engine <= 3.8.7 - Unauthenticated IP Address Spoofing via Forwarded HTTP Headers

- **ID:** WPSEC-2026-1804
- **Plugin:** AI Engine – MCP Server & AI Chatbot for WordPress, with Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini (`ai-engine`), https://wordpress.org/plugins/ai-engine/
- **Affected versions:** all versions before 3.8.8
- **Fixed in:** 3.8.8 (Update to 3.8.8 or later.)
- **Severity:** Medium 5.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N)
- **Weakness:** CWE-348
- **Usage among sites WPSec scans:** plugin Low, affected versions Low (as of 2026-10-28)
- **Attack surface analysis:** https://attacksurface.wpsec.com/plugin/ai-engine
- **Fix released:** 2026-10-27
- **Published:** 2026-10-28
- **URL:** https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-1804/

## Description

The AI Engine plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to IP Address Spoofing in all versions up to, and including, 3.8.7, due to the get_ip_address() function trusting client-supplied headers such as X-Forwarded-For, Client-IP and X-Real-IP before REMOTE_ADDR, without checking that the request came through a trusted proxy. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to present any IP address they choose, and so get around IP-based restrictions such as the Banned IPs setting and per-IP rate limits, and to falsify the IP address recorded with discussions.

## References

- https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-1804/
- https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/ai-engine/tags/3.8.8/
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/ai-engine/

Source: WPSec, https://wpsec.com/vuln/WPSEC-2026-1804/

License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Free to use, share and adapt, also commercially, if you credit WPSec and link to this advisory.