Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cloud
    • Cloud
    • Cybersecurity

    Popular WordPress Plug-ins Vulnerable to Attack: Checkmarx Research

    By
    Brian Prince
    -
    June 18, 2013
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      A new study has found that roughly 20 percent of the 50 most popular plug-ins for the WordPress platform are vulnerable to common Web attacks.

      According to research from security vendor Checkmarx, that figure represents nearly 8 million downloads of plug-ins vulnerable to issues such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery and path traversal. Additionally, the research revealed that seven out of the top 10 most popular e-commerce plug-ins for WordPress are vulnerable to attacks as well—translating to more than 1.7 million downloads.

      The findings, Checkmarx argues, indicate a deeper problem than risky problems. At the root of the issue is a lack of security testing and standards by platform-as-a-service (PaaS) providers when it comes to the apps they distribute, as well as a failure by Web administrators to go the extra mile to ensure the plug-ins are safe.

      “First of all, Web admins think that if they are downloading these plug-ins from a reputable source, then there is an assumption that they are receiving a secure plug-in,” said Maty Siman, CTO of Checkmarx, in an interview. “In our opinion, that is the biggest factor.”

      Web administrators also are challenged by scheduling and prioritizing issues, he said, explaining that not everyone knows what to do with the source code once it’s scanned and vulnerabilities are found.

      “Mitigating these issues is extremely overwhelming to the basic Web admin. It’s not a straightforward process,” he said.

      The first scan conducted by Checkmarx occurred in January 2013, and it revealed that 18 of the top 50 most popular plug-ins had vulnerabilities. A second scan conducted in June 2013 showed the number had been cut to 12.

      “As people who work with source code and security, we can’t say we were surprised by vulnerabilities,” Siman said. “The amount of the vulnerabilities, at a staggering 20 percent of the top 50 plug-ins, were, however, extremely surprising. Especially the e-commerce plug-ins were surprising, because the people who deal with e-commerce you would think would be more concerned with the overall security of their plug-ins.”

      While every line of code has the potential of introducing a vulnerability, Checkmarx found that there was no correlation between the number of lines of code and the vulnerability level of the plug-ins. On the contrary, some plug-ins included only a few thousand lines of code, but had more vulnerabilities than plug-ins containing tens of thousands of lines of code, according to the company’s paper.

      According to Checkmarx, administrators for WordPress sites should only download plug-ins from reputable sources—in this case, WordPress.org. In addition, the security of plug-ins should be assessed by scanning it for security issues. Old or unused plug-ins should be removed.

      Meanwhile, application platform providers need to enforce a security policy on apps that enter the marketplace and make sure they are only authorizing apps that meet their standards, the firm said.

      “The world is shifting towards software distribution platforms,” Siman noted in a blog post. “App marketplaces continue to tell us that their platforms are secure, but don’t buy into those word games. Only if they start enforcing the security of the apps they distribute, [could we] seriously talk about the security of distribution platforms.”

      Avatar
      Brian Prince

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×