WebsiteSecurityCheck

12 Best WordPress Security Check Tool List To Find Vulnerabilities

Do you own a WordPress site?

If yes, then securing your website from cyber-attacks should be your top priority.

Creating a WordPress site for your business is not a very difficult thing to do and it can significantly improve your business.

However, having a website means you are prone to the several cyber vulnerabilities out there. Hence, the need for you to have a WordPress website security.

 

Why is WordPress Security Important?

Undoubtedly, nobody likes to be bothered by website and information security issues. With the evolution of technology, keeping your website safe is becoming a more difficult task. Hackers are always looking for websites with vulnerable security to exploit. The latest WordPress software offers the most security fixes. However, using an up-to-date version of WordPress doesn’t mean your website is safe from hackers. There are several other WordPress vulnerabilities that can be exploited.

According to a recent report by wpscan.org, of the 3,972 known WordPress security vulnerabilities: 52% are from WordPress plugins, 37% are from core WordPress and 11% are from WordPress themes

ithemes.com

In order to avoid this, it is important that you run the latest version of the WordPress software and have effective, up-to-date security measures to keep your website and information safe. Surprisingly, not all website proprietors give much importance to using the latest version of WordPress or keeping it secure.

Only 39% of WordPress websites are running the most current version of the software (4.8).

WordPress

Keeping your website safe can be a difficult task but it’s not impossible; and you can do it yourself. The first way to keep your site safe is not to assume that your website is safe.

73.2% of the most popular WordPress installations are vulnerable to vulnerabilities which can be detected using free automated tools.

WpWhiteSecurity.com

The next thing to do is to scan your website for vulnerabilities and choose the most effective way to get rid of the vulnerabilities.

Despite using the latest version of the WordPress software, there are lots of other ways your site could still be open to hackers.

 

Major WordPress Vulnerabilities
1

SQL Injection & URL Hacking

WordPress is a platform that is database-backed, and runs server-side scripts in PHP. Both of these features can make WordPress vulnerable to nasty URL insertion attacks. URL parameters are used to send commands to wordpress. Hackers who know how build parameters that WordPress can misinterpret or act on without authorization can easily take advantage of this process.

 

2

Brute-Force Login Attempts

Usually, hackers depend on automated scripts for their dirty jobs. These scripts are designed to try out several thousands or millions of combinations of usernames and passwords, in an attempt to log into your WordPress administration page. This means your websites is bombarded with several login attempts; this can significantly slow down your website for real users. Also, one of these numerous login attempts might succeed, and hackers get total control of your website.

 

3

Script Injection

Script injection is a web application attack in which the attackers trick the web server of the victim into running their own script or code. Script injection is a vulnerability that poses a huge security threat as it allows attackers to inject malicious codes into the user interface elements of your web form of data-driven websites.

According to Wikipedia, HTML or Script injection is a popular topic, commonly referred to as cross-site scripting or XSS. XSS refers to an injection flaw or defect in which the input of the user into a web script or the like is placed into the output HTML without checking for HTML code or scripting.

 

4

XSS Cross site scripting

Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of security injection attack that is used by attackers to inject their own data, such as malicious script, into the contents of trusted websites. Cross-site scripting attacks occur when a web application is injected by a malicious code from an untrusted source and the dynamic content that is delivered to the browser of a victim contains the malicious code.

 

5

Access to Sensitive Files

Usually, there are some files contained in a WordPress install which others should not have access to. These files include install script, wordpress configuration file and the “readme” file. These files are sensitive and should be kept private and safe from the reach of outsiders.

 

6

XML RPC attack

WordPress is a platform that needs to frequently communicate with other systems, and the best tool for this is XML-RPC. The XML-RPC helps WordPress to post from official mobile app or desktop clients and to communicate with systems like Movable type or blogger.

There are lots of ways to authenticate or login to your website in WordPress. Using the standard login page located at wp-login.php and using the XMLPRC are the two most common ways. Before applications such as mobile apps are able to perform any privileged action on a website, they usually use the XMLPRC method to authenticate.

 

How To Run a Security Scan on Your WordPress Site?

Running a WordPress website security check is quite an easy to do and you can do it online yourself with no stress. There are several WordPress security check tools that you use to scan your website online for free with just a click of a button.

 

WordPress Vulnerability Detector

WordPress vulnerability detector is a free online scanner by WP plugins Tips. Enter your website’s URL and the WordPress vulnerability detector will check if your website is using wordpress and if it has any vulnerabilities or malwares.

 

SiteCheck Sucuri

Enter your website’s URL (ex. Mywebsite.com) and the Sucuri SiteCheck will check the website for known malware, blacklisting status, website errors and out-of-date software.

 

WordPress Security Scan

Once you enter your site’s URL, the WordPress Security Scan will check your WordPress site for basic vulnerabilities. Advanced scans are also available with a premium upgrade.

 

WpScans

Wpscans.com is self-hosted and checks your WordPress site for vulnerabilities. Wpscans is free for personal use and you can also get a paid license for commercial use.

 

WpRecon

Wprcon.com will scan your website for known malware, blacklisting status, website errors and out-of-date software.

 

VirusTotal

Virustotal analyzes suspicious WordPress website to detect types of malware and automatically share them with the security community.

 

Google Safe Browsing

Google safe browsing notifies web proprietors when their websites are compromised by malicious actors and helps to diagnose and resolve the problems.

 

Quttera

Quttera.com is a free online heuristic URL scanning website. Once you input your website’s URL, it scans it for malwares, exploits and other infections.

 

UrlVoid

URLvoid is a free service that scans your website. Input your site’s URL and URLvoid analyzes your website through multiple blacklist engines and online reputation tools to facilitate the detection of fraudulent and malicious websites.

 

WebInspector

Simply enter your WordPress website’s URL and WebInspector scans your website for malwares.

 

SiteGuarding

SiteGuarding.com offers free online professional web security service. All you need to do is enter your site’s URL and SiteGuarding,com scans your website for malwares and other security issues.

 

Hacker Target

HackerTarget is a free online vulnerability scanner. Simply input your site’s URL and HackerTarget tests your website from the attackers’ perspective to detect vulnerabilities in your website that hackers can exploit.

 

How To Fix Those WordPress Vulnerabilities

There are several WordPress vulnerabilities, and the best way to prevent them is by using Hide My WordPress Ghost Plugin. Hide My WordPress Ghost is a WordPress security plugin that website owners can use for their security checks to prevent vulnerabilities and attacks. With the Hide My WordPress Ghost Plugin, you can change and hide your WordPress Admin and Login URLs to increase your WordPress security and protect your website against hackers.

The Hide My WordPress Ghost Plugin has a lite version and a PRO version. Unfortunately, the lite version doesn’t work for Multisites, Ngingx and IIS.

Hide My WordPress Ghost Lite Security Features:

Hide WordPress wp-admin URL and redirect it to 404 page or a custom page

Hide WordPress wp-login.php and redirect it to 404 page or a custom page

Change the wp-admin and wp-login URLs

Lite WordPress Security Features

In order to hide all the common WordPress paths, you need the PRO version. The PRO version is also a free version of the plugin so you can use it without restrictions.

NB: this plugin requires custom permalinks. Make sure they are activated. To activate them, go to Settings > Permalinks.

Hide My WordPress Ghost security features:

Hide WordPress wp-admin URL and redirect it to 404 page or a custom page

Hide WordPress wp-login.php and redirect it to 404 page or a custom page

Customize the admin and login URL

Customize or change the wp-includes path

Customize or change the wp-content path

Generate random plugins name

Generate random themes name

Generate random themes style path

Customize or plugins path

Customize or uploads path

Customize authors path

Customize comment URL

Customize category path

Customize tags path

Remove the meta ids

Hide _wpnonce key in forms

Hide wp-image and wp-post classes

Hide Emojicons if you don’t use them

Disable Rest API access

Disable Embed scripts

Disable WLW Manifest scripts

Brute Force Attack Protection

Math function in Login Page

Customize attempts, timeout, message

Support for WordPress Multisites, Nginx, IIS, LiteSpeed, Apache, Bitnami Servers

 

 

The Hide My WordPress Ghost offers protection against all major WordPress vulnerabilities and attacks such as Cross-site Scripting (XSS), Brute Force Attacks and SQL Injection Attacks.

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