Last Updated on January 26, 2022
A leading website security platform warned of a plugin vulnerability WordPress users should act on immediately.
If you run a WordPress site, even if it’s not a blog, you need to know about a plugin vulnerability. You may even want to spread the word!
The Wordfence Threat Intelligence Team noted last month a security flaw with the Starter Templates plugin. The security service said the plugin’s full name is “Starter Templates — Elementor, Gutenberg & Beaver Builder Templates.”
Wordfence reported about one million websites use that plugin and therein lies the problem.
“Versions 2.7.0 and older of this plugin contain a vulnerability that allows Contributor-level users to completely overwrite any page on the site with malicious JavaScript,” the service reported.
The plugin’s developer received details on the vulnerability from Wordfence on Oct. 5. Two days later, the developer released version 2.7.1, which corrects that vulnerability.
So the bottom line is this: If you use that plugin, upgrade it right now.
You may ask the same question I’ve heard other bloggers ask: “My blog is pretty small. Why would a hacker want to take it over?”
Logically, it makes sense to wonder why a hacker wouldn’t want to tackle a bigger site like Facebook or Amazon.
What those “bigger sites” have in common is far more layers of security than your typical blog. But when hackers take control of smaller sites, they’re often not interested in the content of data on those sites at all. They’re often more interested in using that site’s resources to attack other sites.
Hackers can employ botnets to perform distributed denial-of-service — or DDoS — attacks on bigger websites. A DDos attack involves flooding bigger sites with unwanted traffic. That can disrupt big websites and cause big problems for companies and customers alike.
So while your site may seem “small” to you, it can still be a small part of a big problem if you don’t maintain your site’s security.
Check your plugins and themes regularly.
When an update becomes available, update them as soon as you can!
