How to Check Your WordPress Site for Vulnerabilities

You can't fix a vulnerability you don't know about. And on WordPress, the vulnerabilities that get sites hacked are rarely exotic; they're known problems, with known fixes sitting in plain sight: an outdated plugin, an expired certificate, a misconfiguration. The hard part isn't fixing them. It's that nobody tells you they're there.

This guide shows you three ways to check your WordPress site for vulnerabilities, from a free two-minute scan to a hands-on manual audit, so you know exactly where you stand today.

First: a vulnerability scan and a malware scan aren't the same thing

It's worth clearing this up because people use the words interchangeably.

A vulnerability scan looks for weaknesses an attacker could exploit: outdated software with known flaws, exposed endpoints, and weak configuration. It answers, "How could someone break in?"

A malware scan looks for malicious code already on your site: injected scripts, backdoors, and spam pages. It answers, "Has someone already broken in?"

You want both. This guide is about the first one, finding the open windows before anyone climbs through them.

Method 1: Run a vulnerability scan (fastest)

The quickest way to know where you stand is to scan your site from the outside, the same view an attacker has. That's precisely what Catcher24's WordPress scanner does, and it takes about two minutes:

1. Add your site: enter your domain, or install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard.

2. Run the scan: Catcher24 checks your site against the latest known vulnerabilities (CVEs), looks at your plugins and themes, your SSL certificate, and your DNS configuration.

3. Review your results: every finding is ranked by severity (CVSS score), so you know what to fix first.

Because the scan runs from the outside in, nothing is installed on your server, there's no plugin eating resources, and no setup to maintain. Your first WordPress site is free to scan.

Method 2: Check manually (free, but partial)

Prefer to look yourself? You can cover the basics by hand:

• Updates: In your dashboard, go to Dashboard → Updates. Anything out of date is a candidate; outdated plugins are the single most common way WordPress sites get compromised.

• Plugins and themes: Note the version of each, then cross-check against a public vulnerability database (such as the WPScan database) to see if any have a disclosed flaw.

• SSL/certificate: Check that your certificate is valid and not close to expiring; an expired certificate breaks trust and can take your site offline.

• Users: Under Users → All Users, look for any administrator account you don't recognize.

• Configuration: Check whether risky features are exposed; XML-RPC, directory listing, and the in-dashboard file editor are common culprits.

Be honest with yourself about the limits here: a manual check is a snapshot taken on one day; it's easy to miss something, and new vulnerabilities are disclosed constantly. It's a good habit, not a complete answer.

Method 3: A security plugin (firewall + malware)

Plugins like Wordfence and Sucuri add a firewall and a malware scanner that run inside WordPress. They're genuinely useful, but they're doing a different job. They largely defend and clean, and they focus on the WordPress install itself. Not only that, but they won't give you the attacker's outside-in view, and they won't flag a DNS misconfiguration or a certificate problem.

The strongest setup is both: a firewall to block and clean and an outside-in scanner to find what's exposed.

What to do with your results

1. Fix critical and high-severity issues first; that's what the CVSS ranking is for.

2. Update or remove the offending plugin or theme. If a plugin is abandoned and unpatched, replace it.

3. Renew or fix any certificate or DNS issues.

4. Re-scan to confirm the issue is gone.

How often should you check?

Once is not enough. New CVEs land every day, which means a plugin that's perfectly safe today can become a known vulnerability tomorrow, without you changing a thing. The point isn't to scan once and relax; it's to scan continuously so you hear about a new exposure before an attacker does.

You are not sure whether your site has already been compromised? Read the 7 warning signs your WordPress site has been hacked.