Closures of Very Popular WordPress Plugins, Week of September 6
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 four of those plugins were closed and three of them have not been reopened.
If you were a customer of our service you would have already been warned if you were using one of the plugins we found to contain security vulnerabilities due to this monitoring.
Ultimate Google Analytics
The plugin Ultimate Google Analytics, which has 50,000+ installs, was closed last Friday. No reason has been given for its closure. We found that it contains a security vulnerability.
Search Exclude
The plugin Search Exclude, which has 30,000+ installs, was closed last Friday. The plugin was apparently closed due to a security issue. We found that it contains a security vulnerability and looks to contain additional security issues. The plugin was reopened yesterday, despite there still being security issues.
All 404 Redirect to Homepage
The plugin All 404 Redirect to Homepage, which has 200,000+ installs, was closed on Monday. No reason has been given for its closure.
Facebook Like Box Widget
The plugin Facebook Like Box Widget, which has 60,000+ installs, was closed today. No reason has been given for its closure.