#1 Trusted Cybersecurity News Platform Followed by 4.50+ million
The Hacker News Logo
Subscribe – Get Latest News
Insider Risk Management

WordPress plugin | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Critical Bug in WordPress Theme Plugin Opens 200,000 Sites to Hackers

Critical Bug in WordPress Theme Plugin Opens 200,000 Sites to Hackers

Feb 17, 2020
A popular WordPress theme plugin with over 200,000 active installations contains a severe but easy-to-exploit software vulnerability that, if left unpatched, could let unauthenticated remote attackers compromise a wide range of websites and blogs. The vulnerable plugin in question is ' ThemeGrill Demo Importer ' that comes with free as well as premium themes sold by the software development company ThemeGrill. ThemeGrill Demo Importer plugin has been designed to allow WordPress site admins to import demo content, widgets, and settings from ThemeGrill, making it easier for them to quickly customize the theme. According to a report WebARX security company shared with The Hacker News, when a ThemeGrill theme is installed and activated, the affected plugin executes some functions with administrative privileges without checking whether the user running the code is authenticated and is an admin. The flaw could eventually allow unauthenticated remote attackers to wipe the e
Flaw in Elementor and Beaver Addons Let Anyone Hack WordPress Sites

Flaw in Elementor and Beaver Addons Let Anyone Hack WordPress Sites

Dec 13, 2019
Attention WordPress users! Your website could easily get hacked if you are using " Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder ," or " Ultimate Addons for Elementor " and haven't recently updated them to the latest available versions. Security researchers have discovered a critical yet easy-to-exploit authentication bypass vulnerability in both widely-used premium WordPress plugins that could allow remote attackers to gain administrative access to sites without requiring any password. What's more worrisome is that opportunistic attackers have already started exploiting this vulnerability in the wild within 2 days of its discovery in order to compromise vulnerable WordPress websites and install a malicious backdoor for later access. Both vulnerable plugins, made by software development company Brainstorm Force, are currently powering over hundreds of thousands of WordPress websites using Elementor and Beaver Builder frameworks, helping website admins and de
Navigating the Threat Landscape: Understanding Exposure Management, Pentesting, Red Teaming and RBVM

Navigating the Threat Landscape: Understanding Exposure Management, Pentesting, Red Teaming and RBVM

Apr 29, 2024Exposure Management / Attack Surface
It comes as no surprise that today's cyber threats are orders of magnitude more complex than those of the past. And the ever-evolving tactics that attackers use demand the adoption of better, more holistic and consolidated ways to meet this non-stop challenge. Security teams constantly look for ways to reduce risk while improving security posture, but many approaches offer piecemeal solutions – zeroing in on one particular element of the evolving threat landscape challenge – missing the forest for the trees.  In the last few years, Exposure Management has become known as a comprehensive way of reigning in the chaos, giving organizations a true fighting chance to reduce risk and improve posture. In this article I'll cover what Exposure Management is, how it stacks up against some alternative approaches and why building an Exposure Management program should be on  your 2024 to-do list. What is Exposure Management?  Exposure Management is the systematic identification, evaluation,
New Flaw in WordPress Live Chat Plugin Lets Hackers Steal and Hijack Sessions

New Flaw in WordPress Live Chat Plugin Lets Hackers Steal and Hijack Sessions

Jun 11, 2019
Security researchers have been warning about a critical vulnerability they discovered in one of a popular WordPress Live Chat plugin, which, if exploited, could allow unauthorized remote attackers to steal chat logs or manipulate chat sessions. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2019-12498, resides in the "WP Live Chat Support" that is currently being used by over 50,000 businesses to provide customer support and chat with visitors through their websites. Discovered by cybersecurity researchers at Alert Logic , the flaw originates because of an improper validation check for authentication that apparently could allow unauthenticated users to access restricted REST API endpoints. As described by researchers, a potential remote attacker can exploit exposed endpoints for malicious purposes, including: stealing the entire chat history for all chat sessions, modifying or deleting the chat history, injecting messages into an active chat session, posing as a custome
cyber security

Want to Bolster Your CI/CD Pipeline?

websiteWizSecurity Auditing / Container Security
This cheat sheet covers best practices with actionable items in Infrastructure security, code security, secrets management, access and authentication, and monitoring and response.
Popular AMP Plugin for WordPress Patches Critical Flaw – Update Now

Popular AMP Plugin for WordPress Patches Critical Flaw – Update Now

Nov 15, 2018
A security researcher has disclosed details of a critical vulnerability in one of the popular and widely active plugins for WordPress that could allow a low-privileged attacker to inject malicious code on AMP pages of the targeted website. The vulnerable WordPress plugin in question is " AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages " that lets websites automatically generate valid accelerated mobile pages for their blog posts and other web pages. AMP , stands for Accelerated Mobile Page s , is an open-source technology that has been designed by Google to allow websites build and server faster web pages to mobile visitors. Though I am pretty sure the main version of "The Hacker News" website is enough fast for both desktop and mobile device users, you can also check the AMP version for this specific article here . Out of hundreds of plugins that allows WordPress websites to create Google-optimize AMP pages, "AMP for WP" is the most popular among others
Popular WooCommerce WordPress Plugin Patches Critical Vulnerability

Popular WooCommerce WordPress Plugin Patches Critical Vulnerability

Nov 07, 2018
If you own an eCommerce website built on WordPress and powered by WooCommerce plugin, then beware of a new vulnerability that could compromise your online store. Simon Scannell, a researcher at RIPS Technologies GmbH, discovered an arbitrary file deletion vulnerability in the popular WooCommerce plugin that could allow a malicious or compromised privileged user to gain full control over the unpatched websites. WooCommerce is one the most popular eCommerce plugins for WordPress that helps websites to upgrade their standard blog to a powerful online store. WooCommerce powers nearly 35% of e-stores on the internet, with more than 4 million installations. Exploiting WooCommerce File-Deletion and WordPress Design Flaws The attack demonstrated in the following video takes advantage of the way WordPress handles user privileges and WooCommerce file deletion vulnerability, allowing an account with "Shop Manager" role to eventually reset administrator accounts' pass
Hidden Backdoor Found In WordPress Captcha Plugin Affects Over 300,000 Sites

Hidden Backdoor Found In WordPress Captcha Plugin Affects Over 300,000 Sites

Dec 20, 2017
Buying popular plugins with a large user-base and using it for effortless malicious campaigns have become a new trend for bad actors. One such incident happened recently when the renowned developer BestWebSoft sold a popular Captcha WordPress plugin to an undisclosed buyer, who then modified the plugin to download and install a hidden backdoor. In a blog post published on Tuesday, WordFence security firm revealed why WordPress recently kicked a popular Captcha plugin with more than 300,000 active installations out of its official plugin store. While reviewing the source code of the Captcha plugin, WordFence folks found a severe backdoor that could allow the plugin author or attackers to remotely gain administrative access to WordPress websites without requiring any authentication. The plugin was configured to automatically pull an updated "backdoored" version from a remote URL — https[://]simplywordpress[dot]net/captcha/captcha_pro_update.php — after installati
WordPress Plugin Used by 300,000+ Sites Found Vulnerable to SQL Injection Attack

WordPress Plugin Used by 300,000+ Sites Found Vulnerable to SQL Injection Attack

Jul 01, 2017
A SQL Injection vulnerability has been discovered in one of the most popular Wordpress plugins, installed on over 300,000 websites, which could be exploited by hackers to steal databases and possibly hijack the affected sites remotely. The flaw has been discovered in the highly popular WP Statistics plugin, which allows site administrators to get detailed information related to the number of users online on their sites, the number of visits and visitors, and page statistics. Discovered by Sucuri team, WordPress plugin WP Statistics is vulnerable to SQL Injection flaw that allows a remote attacker, with at least a subscriber account, to steal sensitive information from the website's database and possibly gain unauthorized access to websites. SQL Injection is a web application bug that allows hackers to inject malicious Structured Query Language (SQL) code to web inputs in order to determine the structure and location of key databases, which eventually allows stealing of
Cybersecurity
Expert Insights
Cybersecurity Resources