Subj : Millions of attacks hit WordPress websites - here's how to make s
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Mon Oct 27 2025 14:15:08

Millions of attacks hit WordPress websites - here's how to make sure you stay 
safe

Date:
Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:03:00 +0000

Description:
Three old WordPress vulnerabilities are being leveraged to establish 
persistence and steal files.

FULL STORY
======================================================================Unpatche
d GutenKit and Hunk Companion plugins exploited in mass WordPress attacks 
Attackers use up plugin to gain admin access and deploy malware Wordfence 
blocked 8.7 million attempts in 48 hours; updates remain critical 

Three critical-severity vulnerabilities, found in two WordPress plugins and 
fixed more than a year ago, are now being exploited in mass attacks against 
websites which still havent patched the issues. 

WordPress security experts Wordfence said it blocked more than 8.7 million 
attack attempts over the course of roughly 48 hours utilizing GutenKit and 
Hunk Companion. 

The former extends Gutenberg by adding dozens of extra blocks, templates, and 
layout tools, while the latter is a helper plugin for ThemeHunk themes that 
adds sections like team, services, portfolio, sliders, and more. Malicious 
payload on GitHub 

Between October and December 2024, three flaws were found - and patched - in 
the plugins: CVE-2024-9234, CVE-2024-9707, and CVE-2024-11972. All three were 
rated critical (9.8/10), and allow threat actors to install arbitrary plugins 
and run malicious code on vulnerable sites. 

Now, threat actors are taking advantage of the fact that many sites are not 
that diligent when it comes to applying fixes. 

Wordfence says the hackers are using the vulnerabilities to install a 
malicious plugin called up, thats being hosted as a .ZIP archive on GitHub. 

The plugin allows the threat actors to upload, download, or delete files from 
the site, as well as to tamper with the sites permissions. It also allows the 
threat actor to automatically log into the vulnerable website as an 
administrator. 

Wordfence also says that between other things, the attackers are using up to 
set up persistence, steal information, and drop additional malware. 

Being the worlds number one website builder platform , WordPress is a popular 
target among cybercriminals. However, since it is generally considered safe, 
the attackers usually go for themes and plugins, since these are often 
vulnerable, or lose support. 

The best way to mitigate the risk is to only keep the plugins and themes you 
are actually using, and to make sure they are updated at all times. 

 Via BleepingComputer 

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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/millions-of-attacks-hit-wordpress-websi
tes-heres-how-to-make-sure-you-stay-safe


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