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A Very Popular WordPress Plugin with 600K Installs Hacked by Ex-Employee

A Very Popular WordPress Plugin with 600K Installs Hacked by Ex-Employee

January 23, 2019

WordPress translation plugin WPML (also known as WordPress MultiLingual) received an email this weekend from a hacker claiming to expose serious security vulnerabilities in the software that allegedly put the customers’ own websites at risk.

WPML plugin is used to write content in multiple languages and translate content without any need of technical or programming skills. English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Dutch are the most popular languages on WPML. As per their site, the plugin is currently used by more than 600K WordPress websites.

The attacker, which the WPML team claims is a former employee, sent out a mass email to all the plugin's customers. In the email, the attacker claimed he was a security researcher who reported several vulnerabilities to the WPML team, which were ignored.

After hacking the WPML website, the attacker sent the following email to every user:
 

The company says that in response to the attack it has rebuilt its website and ensured that access to administrator accounts is now controlled by two-factor authentication (2FA). Furthermore, WPML says that it has “minimized the access that the web server has to the file system.”

WPML further underlined in its advisory that no payment information had been compromised and that the popular WordPress plugin does not contain a vulnerability. Customers have been advised to reset their passwords.
 
 
 
 

N.B:

Custom software development ensures that your software will be able to handle all your daily processes. Personalized software can be as complex or intuitive as you like, and this makes it the ideal choice for businesses of all sizes. When you have software that is designed to do exactly what you want it to do, it helps make your day easier.

One of the biggest advantages you get with custom software is a reliable, efficient technical support plan. You'll have full access to a technical support team familiar with the development process of your application, giving an efficient solution to all the problems you encounter. Custom software also offers more security with minimal chances of intrusion or compromise, due to the fact that hackers are not familiar with the system as they are with popular off-the-shelf software.

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