While we already are far ahead of other companies in keeping up with vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins (amazingly that isn’t an exaggeration), in looking in to how we could get even better we noticed that in a recent instance were a vulnerability was exploited in a plugin, we probably could have warned our customers about the vulnerability even sooner if we had looked at the plugin when it was first closed on the Plugin Directory instead of when the vulnerability was fixed (though as far as we are aware the exploitation started after we had warned our customers of the fix). So we are now monitoring to see if any of the 1,000 most popular plugins are closed on the Plugin Directory and then seeing if it looks like that was due to a vulnerability.

This week three of those plugins were closed and one is currently closed.

Imagify

Imagify, which has 200,000+ installs, was closed on Wednesday. No reason has been given for the closure, but between when it was closed and when the plugin was reopened a new version was released that removed JavaScript code that loaded a remote JavaScript file to create a “support bubble”, which would be in violation of the guidelines for plugins in the Plugin Directory. In a quick check over the plugin we didn’t see any obvious security issues. The plugin was reopened on Thursday.

WP Live Chat Support

WP Live Chat Support, which has 60,000+ installs, was closed yesterday. That was closed due to an information disclosures vulnerability we disclosed. That isn’t the only security issue with the plugin. It was reopened today and then closed again.

FB Messenger Live Chat (Live Chat with Facebook Messenger)

FB Messenger Live Chat (Live Chat with Facebook Messenger), which has 30,000+ installs was closed yesterday. That was closed due to a persistent cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability we disclosed after seeing an indication that hackers were targeting the plugin, probably to exploit that vulnerability. It was reopened today.

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