WordPress Security Scanner

WPScan WordPress Vulnerability Database - WordPress Security Plugin

• (Optional but highly recommended: rbenv)
• Ruby >= 3.3 - Recommended: latest stable
• Curl >= 7.72 - Recommended: latest stable
  • The 7.29 has a segfault
  • The < 7.72 could result in Stream error in the HTTP/2 framing layer in some cases
• RubyGems - Recommended: latest stable
• Nokogiri might require packages to be installed via your package manager depending on your OS, see https://nokogiri.org/tutorials/installing_nokogiri.html

When using a pentesting distribution (such as Kali Linux), it is recommended to install/update wpscan via the package manager if available.

brew install wpscanteam/tap/wpscan

WPScan depends on gems with native extensions (e.g. yajl-ruby, nokogiri, ffi), so a working C toolchain and Ruby development headers must be present before gem install wpscan. Without them, the install fails with errors like Failed to build gem native extension or make: x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc: No such file or directory (see #1844).

• Debian / Ubuntu:

  sudo apt install build-essential ruby-dev

• Fedora / RHEL / CentOS:

  sudo dnf install @development-tools ruby-devel

• Arch Linux:

  sudo pacman -S base-devel ruby

• Alpine:

  sudo apk add build-base ruby-dev

• macOS: install the Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).

Then install the gem:

gem install wpscan

On MacOSX, if a Gem::FilePermissionError is raised due to Apple's System Integrity Protection (SIP), either install RVM and install wpscan again, or run sudo gem install -n /usr/local/bin wpscan (see #1286)

You can update the local database by using wpscan --update

Updating WPScan itself is either done via gem update wpscan or the packages manager (this is quite important for distributions such as in Kali Linux: apt-get update && apt-get upgrade) depending on how WPScan was (pre)installed

Pull the repo with docker pull wpscanteam/wpscan

Enumerating usernames

docker run -it --rm -v wpscan-db:/wpscan/.cache/wpscan/db wpscanteam/wpscan --url https://target.tld/ --enumerate u

Enumerating a range of usernames

docker run -it --rm -v wpscan-db:/wpscan/.cache/wpscan/db wpscanteam/wpscan --url https://target.tld/ --enumerate u1-100

** replace u1-100 with a range of your choice.

The image ships with a copy of the local database baked in at build time. Because the example commands above use --rm, any database update performed during a run is discarded when the container exits, so the next run starts again from the (potentially stale) baked-in copy.

Mounting a named volume at /wpscan/.cache/wpscan/db (the wpscan user's cache directory inside the container) keeps the database across runs, so wpscan --update only re-downloads files whose checksums actually changed and the 5-day staleness prompt behaves as it would for a local install:

docker run -it --rm -v wpscan-db:/wpscan/.cache/wpscan/db wpscanteam/wpscan --update

The named volume is created automatically on first use if it doesn't already exist.

Full user documentation can be found here; https://github.com/wpscanteam/wpscan/wiki/WPScan-User-Documentation

wpscan --url blog.tld This will scan the blog using default options with a good compromise between speed and accuracy. It performs version detection, theme detection, and interesting findings discovery. To enumerate plugins, themes, users, backup folders, etc., use the -e option (e.g., -e ap for all plugins, -e vp for vulnerable plugins, -e bf for backup folders).

If a more stealthy approach is required, then wpscan --stealthy --url blog.tld can be used. As a result, when using the --enumerate option, don't forget to set the --plugins-detection accordingly, as its default is 'passive'.

For more options, open a terminal and type wpscan --help (if you built wpscan from the source, you should type the command outside of the git repo)

The database location follows the XDG Base Directory Specification:

• New installations: ~/.cache/wpscan/db (or $XDG_CACHE_HOME/wpscan/db if set)
• Existing installations: ~/.wpscan/db (legacy path, maintained for backward compatibility)

Runtime files such as the default HTTP cache and cookie jar are stored under $TMPDIR/wpscan when $TMPDIR is set. Otherwise they use the same per-user XDG cache directory, for example ~/.cache/wpscan/cache and ~/.cache/wpscan/cookie_jar.txt. These defaults can be overridden with --cache-dir and --cookie-jar.

To migrate an existing installation to the XDG path:

mv ~/.wpscan ~/.cache/wpscan

The WPScan CLI tool uses the WordPress Vulnerability Database API to retrieve WordPress vulnerability data in real-time. For WPScan to retrieve the vulnerability data an API token must be supplied via the --api-token option, or via a configuration file, as discussed below. An API token can be obtained by registering an account on WPScan.com.

Up to 25 API requests per day are given free of charge, that should be suitable to scan most WordPress websites at least once per day. When the daily 25 API requests are exhausted, WPScan will continue to work as normal but without any vulnerability data.

• Our WordPress scanner makes one API request for the WordPress version, one request per installed plugin, and one request per the installed theme.
• On average, a WordPress website has 22 installed plugins.

WPScan can load all options (including the --url) from configuration files, the following locations are checked (order: first to last):

• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wpscan/scan.json (if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set)
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wpscan/scan.yml (if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set)
• ~/.config/wpscan/scan.json (if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set)
• ~/.config/wpscan/scan.yml (if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set)
• ~/.wpscan/scan.json
• ~/.wpscan/scan.yml
• pwd/.wpscan/scan.json
• pwd/.wpscan/scan.yml

If those files exist, options from the cli_options key will be loaded and overridden if found twice.

e.g:

~/.config/wpscan/scan.yml:

cli_options:
  proxy: 'http://127.0.0.1:8080'
  verbose: true

pwd/.wpscan/scan.yml:

cli_options:
  proxy: 'socks5://127.0.0.1:9090'
  url: 'http://target.tld'

Running wpscan in the current directory (pwd) is the same as wpscan -v --proxy socks5://127.0.0.1:9090 --url http://target.tld

Other command line options can be added by using snake case convention. e.g:

cli_options:
  user_agent: "Testing UA"
  max_threads: 1
  headers: "Custom-Header: aaaa; Another Header: bbb"

The feature mentioned above is useful to keep the API Token in a config file and not have to supply it via the CLI each time. To do so, create the ~/.config/wpscan/scan.yml file containing the below:

cli_options:
  api_token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN'

The API Token will be automatically loaded from the ENV variable WPSCAN_API_TOKEN if present. If the --api-token CLI option is also provided, the value from the CLI will be used.

If you experience connection issues with the WPScan API, you can check the service status at https://status.wpscan.com/. When API connection errors occur, WPScan will include a link to the status page in the error message.

wpscan --url https://target.tld/ --enumerate u

Enumerating a range of usernames

wpscan --url https://target.tld/ --enumerate u1-100

** replace u1-100 with a range of your choice.

wpscan --url https://target.tld/ --enumerate bf

This will check for backup folders created by popular WordPress backup plugins. These folders may contain sensitive data like database dumps, configuration files, or full site backups.

The WPScan software (henceforth referred to simply as "WPScan") is dual-licensed - Copyright 2011-2019 WPScan Team.

Cases that include the commercialization of WPScan require a commercial, non-free license. Otherwise, WPScan can be used without charge under the terms set out below.

1.1 "License" means this document.

1.2 "Contributor" means each individual or legal entity that creates, contributes to the creation of, or owns WPScan.

1.3 "WPScan Team" means WPScan’s core developers.

Commercial use is one intended for commercial advantage or monetary compensation.

Example cases of commercialization are:

• Using WPScan to provide commercial managed/Software-as-a-Service services.
• Distributing WPScan as a commercial product or as part of one.
• Using WPScan as a value-added service/product.

Example cases that do not require a commercial license, and thus fall under the terms set out below, include (but are not limited to):

• Penetration testers (or penetration testing organizations) using WPScan as part of their assessment toolkit.
• Penetration Testing Linux Distributions including but not limited to Kali Linux, SamuraiWTF, BackBox Linux.
• Using WPScan to test your own systems.
• Any non-commercial use of WPScan.

If you need to purchase a commercial license or are unsure whether you need to purchase a commercial license contact us - contact@wpscan.com.

Free-use Terms and Conditions;

Redistribution is permitted under the following conditions:

• Unmodified License is provided with WPScan.
• Unmodified Copyright notices are provided with WPScan.
• Does not conflict with the commercialization clause.

Copying is permitted so long as it does not conflict with the Redistribution clause.

Modification is permitted so long as it does not conflict with the Redistribution clause.

Any Contributions assume the Contributor grants the WPScan Team the unlimited, non-exclusive right to reuse, modify and relicense the Contributor's content.

WPScan is provided under an AS-IS basis and without any support, updates, or maintenance. Support, updates and maintenance may be given according to the sole discretion of the WPScan Team.

WPScan is provided under this License on an “as is” basis, without warranty of any kind, either expressed, implied, or statutory, including, without limitation, warranties that the WPScan is free of defects, merchantable, fit for a particular purpose or non-infringing.

To the extent permitted under Law, WPScan is provided under an AS-IS basis. The WPScan Team shall never, and without any limit, be liable for any damage, cost, expense or any other payment incurred as a result of WPScan's actions, failure, bugs, and/or any other interaction between WPScan and end-equipment, computers, other software or any 3rd party, end-equipment, computer or services.

Running WPScan against websites without prior mutual consent may be illegal in your country. The WPScan Team accepts no liability and is not responsible for any misuse or damage caused by WPScan.

The "wpscan" term is a registered trademark. This License does not grant the use of the "wpscan" trademark or the use of the WPScan logo.