WordPress blogging platform is one of the most widely used blog and website platform. If you are using WordPress as the CMS for your website or blog, it is very important to keep track of your WordPress installation and plugin files for any unwanted changes and security holes. Regular update of WordPress and plugins are released by WordPress and plugin developers to fix any security and functional issues. Regular visit of admin dashboard will tell you which plugin needs to be updated or which one is outdated.
Outdated plugins files usually vulnerable to malicious attacks. The recent Timthumb.php vulnerability was because of the outdated version of the plugin. This security issue left many bloggers hacked. When a website is compromised, hackers leave behind scripts and modified file content. So regular scanning of your website files tell you whether any files has added, modified or compromised.
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If you do not visit your WordPress dashboard regularly, you can make use of plugins which monitor WordPress files. These WordPress file checker plugins sends you warning messages and emails, if they find any suspicious changes to files. Here is the list of top 5 WordPress file change monitor plugins. `
Top 5 WordPress file change warning Plugins
Wordfence Security
Wordfence scans core WordPress files, themes and plugins against WordPress.org repository versions to check their integrity. Wordfence is a plugin that includes a firewall, anti-virus scanning, malicious URL scanning and live traffic including crawlers. This plugin can verify and repair your core, theme and plugin files. This is Multi-Site compatible plugin can even monitor unauthorized DNS changes, block common security threats like fake Googlebots, malicious scans from hackers and botnets.
Get Wordfence
WordPress Sentinel
WordPress Sentinel is another WordPress plugin that tracks all files in a WordPress installation (core, themes, and plugins) and then periodically rechecks and notifies the administrator of any files that have changed in any way.
Get WordPress Sentinel
VIP Scanner
VIP Scanner security plugin will scan your WordPress themes for any problems. It will also detect any advertising code that may have been injected into your WordPress templates.
Get VIP Scanner
Exploit Scanner
Exploit Scanner searches the files on your website, and the posts and comments tables of your database for anything suspicious. It also examines unusual plugin file names.
Get Exploit Scanner
WP Update Notifier
WP Update Notifier is another useful plugin that monitors your WordPress installation for core, plugin and theme updates and emails you when they are available. You can set the interval of how often to check for updates; hourly, twice daily or daily.
Get WP Update Notifier
If you are still using Timthumb, it is better to use the Timthumb Vulnerability Scanner plugin that will scan your entire wp-content directory for instances of any outdated and insecure version of the timthumb script, and give you the option to automatically upgrade them with a single click.
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