WordPress Security Audit Checklist for Production Sites
A WordPress security audit checklist should produce clear remediation actions, not a long report nobody executes. Use this guide to review core, plugins, themes, privileg...
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The Temporary Login plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Authentication Bypass in versions up to and including 1.0.0. This is due to improper input validation in the maybe_login_temporary_user() function, which fails to verify that the 'temp-login-token' GET parameter is a scalar string before processing it. When the parameter is supplied as an array, PHP's empty() check is bypassed and sanitize_key() returns an empty string, which is then passed as the meta_value to get_users(). WordPress ignores an empty meta_value and returns all users matching the meta_key '_temporary_login_token', allowing authentication without a valid token. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to authenticate as any active temporary login user by sending a single crafted GET request.
Update to version 1.1.0, or a newer patched version
Multiple plugins and/or themes for WordPress are vulnerable to Reflected Cross-Site Scripting via the url parameter in various versions 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.
Update to version 3.4.15, or a newer patched version
The WP Editor plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in all versions up to, and including, 1.2.9.2. This is due to missing nonce verification in the 'add_plugins_page' and 'add_themes_page' functions. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to overwrite arbitrary plugin and theme PHP files with attacker-controlled code via a forged request, granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking a link.
Update to version 1.2.9.3, or a newer patched version
The Elementor Website Builder plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the _elementor_data meta field in versions up to, and including, 4.0.4. This is due to insufficient input sanitization when processing form-encoded REST API requests. The plugin registers the _elementor_data meta field with show_in_rest but omits a sanitize_callback, relying instead on a rest_pre_insert_post filter (sanitize_post_data function) that only sanitizes JSON-encoded request bodies. When a contributor sends a form-encoded PATCH request to the WordPress REST API, the json_decode() call on the raw body returns null, causing all sanitization to be skipped. The unsanitized data is then stored via update_post_meta() and later output without escaping through multiple widget sinks including the HTML widget's print_unescaped_setting() function. 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.
Update to version 4.0.5, or a newer patched version
The Ultimate Dashboard plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Cross-Site Request Forgery in all versions up to, and including, 3.8.14. This is due to a flawed nonce validation conditional in the 'handle_module_actions' function. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to toggle plugin modules on or off via a forged request granted they can trick a site administrator into performing an action such as clicking on a link.
Update to version 3.8.15, or a newer patched version
The Five Star Restaurant Reservations plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to a payment bypass via PHP type juggling in versions up to, and including, 2.7.16 This is due to the valid_payment() function using a PHP loose comparison (==) between the attacker-controlled payment_id POST parameter and the booking's stripe_payment_intent_id property. When an unauthenticated attacker submits a request to the nopriv AJAX handler rtb_stripe_pmt_succeed before the Stripe payment intent has been created for a booking (i.e., before the JavaScript-triggered create_stripe_pmtIntnt() call has stored an intent ID in post meta), the stripe_payment_intent_id property on the booking object remains null. The comparison sanitize_text_field('') == null evaluates to TRUE in PHP loose comparison, causing the payment verification check to pass with zero actual payment. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to mark any existing payment_pending booking as paid without completing a Stripe payment by submitting an empty payment_id parameter.
Update to version 2.7.17, or a newer patched version
The Otter Blocks plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Purchase Verification Bypass in all versions up to, and including, 3.1.4. This is due to the 'get_customer_data' method relying on an unsigned 'o_stripe_data' cookie to determine Stripe product ownership for unauthenticated users. The 'check_purchase' method trusts this cookie data without performing server-side verification against the Stripe API for one-time 'payment' mode purchases. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to bypass Stripe purchase-gated content visibility conditions by forging the 'o_stripe_data' cookie with a target product ID, which is publicly exposed in the checkout block's HTML source.
Update to version 3.1.5, or a newer patched version
The Complianz – GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to unauthorized data access in all versions up to, and including, 7.4.5 This is due to the REST API endpoint at /wp-json/complianz/v1/consent-area/{post_id}/{block_id} using __return_true as the permission_callback, allowing any unauthenticated user to access it. The cmplz_rest_consented_content() function retrieves a post by ID via get_post() and returns the consentedContent attribute of any complianz/consent-area block found in it, without checking if the post is published or if the user has permission to read it. This makes it possible for unauthenticated attackers to read the consent area block content from private, draft, or unpublished posts.
Update to version 7.4.6, or a newer patched version
The WP Meteor Website Speed Optimization Addon plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting via the 'frontend_rewrite' function's 'WPMETEOR[N]WPMETEOR' placeholder content in all versions up to, and including, 3.4.16 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.
Update to version 3.4.17, or a newer patched version
The Check & Log Email – Easy Email Testing & Mail logging plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Stored Cross-Site Scripting in versions up to 2.0.13 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.
Update to version 2.0.13, or a newer patched version
Use hub pages to review all indexed records for a single WordPress plugin or theme instead of scanning the global feed one advisory at a time.
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