Web Dorian
Users love to use WordPress plugins because they come with loads of features. They are amazing in terms of functionality and enhancement they provide to your WordPress website.
There is a plugin for every task you want to perform on your WordPress site. However, these plugins also have a downside. Just like any other software even WordPress plugins are vulnerable.
Plugin vulnerabilities are very common. These are weaknesses, flaws, or glitches in the coding. Sometimes such vulnerabilities can enable hackers to hack your WordPress site and misuse it. They can even gain full control over your website. This is why you should update your plugins regularly as they often come with security patches. The best thing to do would be to enable automatic WordPress updates on your website.
WordPress Plugin Vulnerabilities
We have listed some of the most common types of plugin vulnerabilities that are faced by users. As a WordPress user, you should be aware of these vulnerabilities.
- Privilege escalation
Let’s say if a hacker could break into your site and gain access to any of your users or subscriber, they can escalate privileges to an administrator. This would give them full control of your website.
- SQL injections
This is perhaps one of the most common vulnerabilities. This exploits the areas that are used to send vital information to the database. A hacker can insert a malicious script in these inputs. In this case, the script will not pass to the database. Once it reaches the database, the malicious code will get activated. This will help the hacker to create a new account. If he can do so, then he can change your password or do even worse like injecting spam links.
- Remote execution evaluation
This allows hackers to make changes to post-meta data of images. If they succeed, they can insert their malicious images. This will allow them to update or create new posts and images.
- Cross-site scripting
This is commonly known as XSS cross-site scripting. It is a type of injection that helps hackers to insert malicious scripts to sites. This is mainly used on website users and not the website owner. However, they can also use this attack to change the contents or deface a site. Not just that, but they could also redirect users to some other site.
If you are using WordPress plugins for your website, you should be aware of these vulnerabilities. You should update the plugins regularly to make them secure.