4,000,000 WordPress Sites Using Really Simple Security Free and Pro Versions Affected by Critical Authentication Bypass Vulnerability

Introductory Note: This is one of the more serious vulnerabilities that we have reported on in our 12 year history as a security provider for WordPress. This vulnerability affects Really Simple Security, formerly known as Really Simple SSL , installed on over 4 million websites, and allows an...

Wordfence Launches Bug Bounty Program to Fund WordPress Security Research and Showcase Researchers

At Defiant Inc and Wordfence, our mission is to Secure the Web. A critical component of creating and maintaining a secure online community is the research that reveals vulnerabilities in software. Without this research, only malicious hackers would find vulnerabilities, and they would quietly...

Massive Targeted Exploit Campaign Against WooCommerce Payments Underway

The Wordfence Threat Intelligence team has been monitoring an ongoing exploit campaign targeting a recently disclosed vulnerability in WooCommerce Payments, a plugin installed on over 600,000 sites. Large-scale attacks against the vulnerability, assigned CVE-2023-28121, began on Thursday, July 14...

Missing Authorization Vulnerability in Blog2Social Plugin

On October 5, 2022, the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team responsibly disclosed a Missing Authorization vulnerability in Blog2Social, a WordPress plugin installed on over 70,000 sites that allows users to set up post sharing to various social networks. Vulnerable versions of the plugin make it...

Over 1 Million Sites Impacted by Vulnerability in Starter Templates Plugin

On October 4, 2021, the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team initiated the responsible disclosure process for the Starter Templates plugin, which is installed on over 1 Million WordPress websites. The full name of the WordPress plugin is “Starter Templates — Elementor, Gutenberg & Beaver Builder...

Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (January 12, 2026 to January 18, 2026)

Did you know Wordfence runs aBug Bounty Program for all WordPress plugin and themes at no cost to vendors? Researchers can earn up to $31,200 per vulnerability , for all in-scope vulnerabilities submitted to our Bug Bounty Program! Find a vulnerability, submit the details directly to us, and we...

200,000 WordPress Sites Affected by Unauthenticated Critical Vulnerabilities in Anti-Spam by CleanTalk WordPress Plugin

Calling all superheroes and hunters! Introducing the End of Year Holiday Extravaganza and the WordPress Superhero Challenge for the Wordfence Bug Bounty Program! Through December 9th, 2024: All in-scope vulnerability types for WordPress plugins/themes with = 1,000 active installations are in-scop...

Over 100,000 WordPress Websites Affected by XSS and SQLi Vulnerabilities in Slimstat Analytics Plugin

On August 24, 2023, our Wordfence Threat Intelligence team identified and began the responsible disclosure process for a stored Cross-Site Scripting XSS and a Blind SQL Injection vulnerability in the Slimstat Analytics plugin, which is actively installed on more than 100,000 WordPress websites. T...

Site Deletion Vulnerability in Hashthemes Plugin

Update: a previous version of this article incorrectly indicated that this vulnerability could be used for site takeover, we have updated this for accuracy, as the impact is instead complete loss of site content. Note: To receive disclosures like this in your inbox the moment they’re published, y...

Terms of Use Violation

Wordfence is used by millions of free and paid customers around the world to secure their WordPress websites. We serve a broad range of customers across the globe, from diverse cultures, with diverse backgrounds, and who have diverse political views. As an organization, Defiant, the company that...

Quarterly WordPress Threat Intelligence Report – Q4 2025

As the leader in WordPress security, Wordfence provides unparalleled security coverage that fully encompasses protection, active monitoring, detection, and response all built around our threat intelligence, demonstrating a strong commitment to security. Our mission is to ensure comprehensive...

An Inside Look at The Malware and Techniques Used in the WordPress.org Supply Chain Attack

On Monday June 24th, 2024 the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team was made aware of the presence of malware in the Social Warfare repository plugin see post Supply Chain Attack on WordPress.org Plugins Leads to 5 Maliciously Compromised WordPress Plugins. After adding the malicious code to our...

$2,063 Bounty Awarded for Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Patched in User Registration WordPress Plugin

🎉 Did you know were running a Bug Bounty Extravaganza again? Earn over 6x our usual bounty rates, up to $10,000, for all vulnerabilities submitted through May 27th, 2024 when you opt to have Wordfence handle responsible disclosure! On March 9th, 2024, during our second Bug Bounty Extravaganza, we...

Introducing New Pricing For Wordfence CLI!

We have an exciting announcement today about the Wordfence CLI project. We launched Wordfence CLI at WordCamp US back in August of 2023 with the goal of bringing malware and vulnerability scanning to the command line. Weve been working closely with our customers since the launch to better...

Local File Inclusion Vulnerability Patched in Shield Security WordPress Plugin

On December 18, 2023, right before the end of Holiday Bug Extravaganza, we received a submission for a Local File Inclusion vulnerability in Shield Security, a WordPress plugin with more than 50,000+ active installations. It’s important to note that this vulnerability is limited to just the...

Critical Authentication Bypass Vulnerability Patched in SiteGround Security Plugin

On March 10, 2022 the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team initiated the responsible disclosure process for a vulnerability we discovered in “SiteGround Security”, a WordPress plugin that is installed on over 400,000 sites. This flaw makes it possible for attackers to gain administrative user acces...

XSS Vulnerability Patched in SEOPress Affects 100,000 sites

On July 29, 2021 the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team initiated the responsible disclosure process for a vulnerability that we discovered in SEOPress, a WordPress plugin installed on over 100,000 sites. This flaw made it possible for an attacker to inject arbitrary web scripts on a vulnerable...

Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (May 25, 2026 to May 31, 2026)

Last week, there were 277 vulnerabilities disclosed in 184 WordPress Plugins and 70 WordPress Themes that have been added to the Wordfence Intelligence Vulnerability Database, and there were 93 Vulnerability Researchers that contributed to WordPress Security last week. Review those vulnerabilitie...

Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (February 9, 2026 to February 15, 2026)

Triple Threat Bug Bounty Challenge Hunt High Threat vulnerabilities and earn triple the incentives! Now through April 6, 2026 , earn three stacked bonuses on all valid submissions from our ' High Threat Vulnerabilities' list: 2x all high threat vulnerability bounties excluding 5,000,000+ installs...

$937 Bounty Awarded for Privilege Escalation and Local File Inclusion Vulnerabilities Patched in MasterStudy LMS WordPress Plugin

🎉 Did you know were running a Bug Bounty Extravaganza again? Earn over 6x our usual bounty rates, up to $10,000, for all vulnerabilities submitted through May 27th, 2024 when you opt to have Wordfence handle responsible disclosure! On February 25th, 2024, during our second Bug Bounty Extravaganza...

Know your Malware – A Beginner’s Guide to Encoding Techniques Used to Obfuscate Malware

With the launch of Wordfence CLI, our high performance security scanner that can detect the vast majority of PHP malware targeting WordPress, Wordfence continues to emphasize the importance of malware detection and remediation. Malware targeting WordPress uses a variety of obfuscation techniques ...

Critical Security Update: Directorist WordPress Plugin Patches Two High-risk Vulnerabilities

Alongside our usual work to discover, report, and remediate vulnerabilities in the WordPress ecosystem, the WordPress Threat Intelligence team has been conducting a deep-dive into WordPress plugin code with the objective of finding methods to bypass authentication and gain elevated privileges in...

Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Patched Promptly in WP Data Access WordPress Plugin

On April 5, 2023 the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team initiated the responsible disclosure process for a vulnerability we discovered in WP Data Access, a WordPress plugin that is installed on over 10,000 sites. This flaw makes it possible for an authenticated attacker to grant themselves...

Wordfence 7.8.0 Is Out! Here Is What Is Included

Wordfence 7.8.0 is out! A huge thanks to our quality assurance team, our team of developers and our ops team for planning, implementing and releasing Wordfence 7.8.0. This release has several fixes to make Wordfence even more robust, and includes a fundamental change in the way our signup works...

Analyzing Attack Data and Trends Targeting Ukrainian Domains

As we continue to monitor the cyber situation in Ukraine, the data we are seeing shows some interesting trends. Not only has the volume of attacks continued rising throughout the war in Ukraine, the types of attacks have been varied. A common tactic of cyber criminals is to run automated exploit...

Critical Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in Jupiter and JupiterX Premium Themes

On April 5, 2022, the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team initiated the responsible disclosure process for a set of vulnerabilities in the Jupiter and JupiterX Premium themes and the required JupiterX Core companion plugin for WordPress, which included a critical privilege escalation vulnerability...

200,000 WordPress Sites Affected by Arbitrary File Deletion Vulnerability in Perfmatters WordPress Plugin

On March 1st, 2026, we received a submission for an Arbitrary File Deletion vulnerability in Perfmatters, a WordPress plugin with more than 200,000 active installations. This vulnerability makes it possible for unauthenticated threat actors to delete arbitrary files, including the wp-config.php...

Recently Disclosed SureTriggers Critical Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Under Active Exploitation

On May 2nd, 2025 the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team added a new critical vulnerability to the Wordfence Intelligence vulnerability database in the OttoKit: All-in-One Automation Platform Formerly SureTriggers plugin publicly disclosed by a third-party CNA on April 30th, 2025. This vulnerabili...

Announcing The Wordfence Audit Log: Off-Site Real-Time Security Event Logging for WordPress

Today the Wordfence team is proud to announce an exciting new feature: The Wordfence Audit Log, included in the Wordfence 8.0 release. The audit log captures and stores security-related events on your website as they happen, and sends them securely to an off-site location to protect them from...

1,000,000 WordPress Sites Protected Against Unique Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in WPML WordPress Plugin

Did you know Wordfence runs a Bug Bounty Program for all WordPress plugin and themes at no cost to vendors? Through October 14th, researchers can earn up to $31,200, for all in-scope vulnerabilities submitted to our Bug Bounty Program! Find a vulnerability, submit the details directly to us, and ...

Backdoor Masquerading as Legitimate Plugin

As part of our product lineup, we offer security monitoring and malware removal services to our Wordfence Care and Response customers. In the event of a security incident, our incident response team will investigate the root cause, find and remove malware from your site, and help with other...

High Severity Vulnerability Patched in Download Manager Plugin

On July 8, 2022 the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team initiated the responsible disclosure process for a vulnerability we discovered in “Download Manager,” a WordPress plugin that is installed on over 100,000 sites. This flaw makes it possible for an authenticated attacker to delete arbitrary...

Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (April 20, 2026 to April 26, 2026)

Last week, there were 158 vulnerabilities disclosed in 123 WordPress Plugins and 27 WordPress Themes that have been added to the Wordfence Intelligence Vulnerability Database, and there were 69 Vulnerability Researchers that contributed to WordPress Security last week. Review those vulnerabilitie...

Wordfence Bug Bounty Program Monthly Report – October 2025

Last month in October 2025, the Wordfence Bug Bounty Program received 486 vulnerability submissions from our growing community of security researchers working to improve the overall security posture of the WordPress ecosystem. These submissions are reviewed, triaged, and processed by the Wordfenc...

400,000 WordPress Sites Affected by Account Takeover Vulnerability in Post SMTP WordPress Plugin

On October 11th, 2025, we received a submission for an Account Takeover via Email Log Disclosure vulnerability in Post SMTP, a WordPress plugin with more than 400,000 active installations. This vulnerability makes it possible for an unauthenticated attacker to view email logs, including password...

Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (August 4, 2025 to August 10, 2025)

Calling all Vulnerability Researchers and Bug Bounty Hunters! Spring into Summer with Wordfence! Now through September 4, 2025, earn 2X bounty rewards forall in-scope submissions from our 'High Threat' list in software with fewer than 5 million active installs. Bounties up to $31,200 per...

6,000,000 WordPress Sites Protected Against Payment Refund and Subscription Cancellation Vulnerability in WPForms WordPress Plugin

💥 Time to wrap up this year and kick-off the new year with a bang! We’re wrapping up the year with ourEnd of Year Holiday Extravaganza , High-Risk Bonus Blitz Challenge , and Superhero Challenge for the Wordfence Bug Bounty Program. Through January 6th, 2025: All in-scope vulnerability types for...

Wordfence Price Increases Coming December 5th, 2024

We haven't raised our prices in a relatively high inflation environment in 2 years, and in the case of Wordfence Care and Response, for 2.5 years. So that time has come, and we want to let our free and paid user community know ahead of time. We’re giving you almost a month forewarning before we...

6,000 WordPress Sites Affected by Unauthenticated Critical Vulnerability in WP Job Portal WordPress Plugin

📢 Did you know Wordfence runs a Bug Bounty Program for all WordPress plugin and themes at no cost to vendors? Through October 14th, researchers can earn up to $31,200, for all in-scope vulnerabilities submitted to our Bug Bounty Program! Find a vulnerability, submit the details directly to us, an...

7,000 WordPress Sites Affected by Privilege Escalation Vulnerability in ProfileGrid WordPress Plugin

📢 Did you know Wordfence runs a Bug Bounty Program for all WordPress plugin and themes at no cost to vendors? Researchers can earn up to $10,400, for all in-scope vulnerabilities submitted to our Bug Bounty Program! Find a vulnerability, submit the details directly to us, and we handle all the...

$400 Bounty Awarded for SQL Injection Vulnerability Patched in WP Activity Log Premium WordPress Plugin

🎉 Did you know were running a Bug Bounty Extravaganza again? Earn over 6x our usual bounty rates, up to $10,000, for all vulnerabilities submitted through May 27th, 2024 when you opt to have Wordfence handle responsible disclosure! On February 24th, 2024, during our second Bug Bounty Extravaganza...

$1,313 Bounty Awarded for Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Patched in Academy LMS WordPress Plugin

Did you know were running a Bug Bounty Extravaganza again? Earn over 6x our usual bounty rates, up to $10,000, for all vulnerabilities submitted through February 29th, 2024 when you opt to have Wordfence handle responsible disclosure! On February 14th, 2024, during our second Bug Bounty...

$1,900 Bounty Awarded for Arbitrary Options Update Vulnerability Patched in Cookie Information | Free GDPR Consent Solution WordPress Plugin

On December 11th, 2023, during our Holiday Bug Extravaganza, we received a submission for an Arbitrary Options Update vulnerability in Cookie Information | Free GDPR Consent Solution, a WordPress plugin with more than 100,000+ active installations. This vulnerability could be used by authenticate...

Introducing Wordfence CLI: A High Performance Malware Scanner Built for the Command Line

Today, we are incredibly excited to announce the launch of Wordfence CLI: an open source, high performance malware scanner built for the command-line. With Wordfence CLI you can detect malware and other indicators of compromise on a host system by running an extremely fast scanner that is at home...

Tyche Softwares Addresses Authentication Bypass Vulnerability in Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce WordPress Plugin

On May 29, 2023, our Wordfence Threat Intelligence team identified and began the responsible disclosure process for an Authentication Bypass vulnerability in Tyche Softwares’s Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce plugin, which is actively installed on more than 30,000 WordPress websites. This...

Vulnerability in WP DSGVO Tools (GDPR) Plugin Allows Unauthenticated Page Deletion

Note: To receive disclosures like this in your inbox the moment they’re published, you can subscribe to our WordPress Security Mailing List. On September 27, 2021, the Wordfence Threat Intelligence team initiated the disclosure process for a vulnerability we found in WP DSGVO Tools GDPR, a...

Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (July 13, 2026 to July 19, 2026)

Last week, there were 87 vulnerabilities disclosed in WordPress Core, 77 WordPress Plugins and no WordPress themes that have been added to the Wordfence Intelligence Vulnerability Database, and there were 60 Vulnerability Researchers that contributed to WordPress Security last week. Review those...

Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (April 27, 2026 to May 3, 2026)

Last week, there were 87 vulnerabilities disclosed in 198 WordPress Plugins and 5 WordPress Themes that have been added to the Wordfence Intelligence Vulnerability Database, and there were 61 Vulnerability Researchers that contributed to WordPress Security last week. Review those vulnerabilities ...

Wordfence Intelligence Weekly WordPress Vulnerability Report (September 15, 2025 to September 21, 2025)

Calling all Vulnerability Researchers and Bug Bounty Hunters! Operation: Maximum Impact Challenge ! Now through November 10, 2025, earn 2X bounty rewards forall in-scope submissions in software with at least 5,000 active installs and fewer than 5 million active installs. Bounties up to $31,200 pe...

Holiday Attack Spikes Target Ancient Vulnerabilities and Hidden Webshells

Winter brings a number of holidays in a short period of time, and many organizations shut down or run a skeleton crew for a week or more at the end of the year and beginning of the new year. This makes it easier for would-be attackers to find success as systems are not as closely monitored. This...