How WordPress Websites Become Vulnerable? in 2026

Here is the list of 16 common WordPress security issues you need to know:

Out-of-date plugins and theme

Malware on your WordPress website

SEO spam malware

Malicious redirects

Reused passwords

Backdoors on your WordPress site

wp-vcd.php malware

Brute force attacks

Cross-site scripting attacks

The website is on HTTP, not HTTPS

Spam emails being sent from WordPress

Dormant user accounts

Another report done in 2021, showed that out of a testing pool of 2,837 vulnerabilities were caused by plugins 75% of the time, WordPress core 14% of the time, and themes 11% of the time.

Remember that WordPress is open source which means that anyone, anywhere, can contribute code to the files that make up WordPress and to the plugins and themes that help make WordPress work.

There are a lot of review processes and guidelines and rules that go into this code before it’s published. And when it’s discovered that any WordPress-related software is vulnerable or unsafe, there are people all over the world who jump to report it and, or fix it. whether it be WordPress core software, plugins or themes can help you prevent the grand majority of vulnerabilities.

The internet is close to real life there are bad people and good people who facilitate growth.

WordPress plugins and themes are all built with code blocks and, we occasionally make mistakes in code. The mistakes can cause lapses in security, which are called vulnerabilities.

Security researchers look for WordPress security vulnerabilities in popular software, in order to make the Internet a safer place. When they discover vulnerabilities, they disclose them to our developers to fix. Then we release a security patch in the form of an update, which resolves the vulnerability. Once sufficient time has passed, security researchers will then announce their findings.

Theoretically, by this time, the plugins and themes should have been updated. However, that is very often not the case. And hackers know and rely upon this tendency to attack websites, and exploit their vulnerability.

Updates can sometimes break the site unless you do them carefully.

Hackers use programs called bots to attack login pages, trying out many combinations of usernames and passwords to break into a website. Often bots can try as many as hundreds of combinations per minute, using dictionary words and commonly used passwords to break through. Once they succeed, the hacker has open-door access to your website.

On the flip side, strong passwords are difficult to remember, so admin chooses easy-to-remember ones, like pets’ names, birthdays, or even permutations of the word ‘password’.

However, this makes the site security vulnerable to attacks. This information is legitimately available online via social media and other sites, and illegitimately via data breaches or the dark web. The best thing to do is to have a strong, unique password to keep your account, and therefore website, safe.

Note: You need to set strong passwords across your site accounts, which include your user account and hosting account. Admin doesn’t often change the SFTP and database credentials, but if you have done, make sure you set strong passwords for these too.

Additionally, you can limit login attempts on WordPress. If a user has too many incorrect logins, they are temporarily locked out, or they need to fill in a CAPTCHA to prove they aren’t a bot. This measure keeps bots out and makes allowances for human error.

Malware is a catch-all term used to describe any code that allows unauthorized activity on your website. In subsequent points, we will look at specific cases too, like backdoors and phishing scams.

When we talk about addressing WordPress security issues, the goal is to keep out malware. However, as we have said, no system is 100% bulletproof. You can do everything right, and a clever hacker will find a new way to penetrate the defenses. It is rare, but it happens. So how do you deal with malware, if it is already on your website?