Backdoors Found in Dozens of WordPress Plugins After Ownership Change Threaten Thousands of Websites
News Context
At a glance
- A supply chain attack targeting dozens of WordPress plugins has compromised thousands of websites after malicious code was inserted into popular extensions following their acquisition by a new...
- The backdoor was discovered in plugins previously maintained by Essential Plugin, a WordPress plugin maker that was sold to an unnamed corporate entity.
- WordPress’ official plugin directory indicates that the compromised extensions were installed on over 20,000 active websites at the time of discovery.
A supply chain attack targeting dozens of WordPress plugins has compromised thousands of websites after malicious code was inserted into popular extensions following their acquisition by a new corporate owner.
The backdoor was discovered in plugins previously maintained by Essential Plugin, a WordPress plugin maker that was sold to an unnamed corporate entity. According to security researcher Austin Ginder of Anchor Hosting, the malicious code remained dormant for several months before activating earlier this month, beginning to distribute harmful payloads to any website using the affected plugins.