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 of them have not been reopened.

WooCommerce Variation Swatches (Variation Swatches for WooCommerce)

The plugin WooCommerce Variation Swatches (Variation Swatches for WooCommerce), which has 60,000+ installs, was closed on Monday. No reason has been given for the closure. In checking over the security of the plugin we found it contains a reflected cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability.

Google Maps Widget (Maps Widget for Google Map)

The plugin Google Maps Widget, which has 100,000+ installs, was closed on Tuesday. No reason has been given for the closure. The plugin was reopened on Wednesday after being renamed to Maps Widget for Google Map and security changes being made, though it still insecure.

Essential Grid Portfolio – Photo Gallery

The plugin Essential Grid Portfolio – Photo Gallery, which has 400,000+ installs (that install count might be mostly usage of an unrelated commercial plugin with the same slug), was closed on Thursday. No reason has been given for the closure. The plugin was reopened today after a change described in the changelog as “Hotfix for critical issue which blocked users from adding new images to portfolios”. After we disclosed a vulnerability in it, it was closed again.

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