WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) used by millions of websites worldwide. However, as with any software, it is not immune to security vulnerabilities. Hackers often target WordPress sites to exploit these vulnerabilities and gain unauthorized access to sensitive information or inject malicious code. That’s where tools like WPScan come in handy. WPScan is an open-source penetration testing tool that can help you identify vulnerabilities in WordPress sites. In this blog, we will provide a step-by-step guide on how to use WPScan to test a website for WordPress vulnerabilities.

Step 1: Install WPScan

The first step in using WPScan is to install it on your system. WPScan is a Ruby-based command-line tool, so you need to have Ruby installed on your system. You can download and install Ruby from the official Ruby website (https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/). Once you have installed Ruby, open your terminal and run the following command to install WPScan:

gem install wpscan

Step 2: Launch WPScan

To launch WPScan, open your terminal and run the following command:

wpscan --url http://www.example.com

Replace “http://www.example.com” with the URL of the website you want to test. WPScan will start scanning the website for vulnerabilities.

Step 3: Scan for WordPress Version

The first thing you want to do is scan for the WordPress version. Knowing the version of WordPress installed on the website can help you identify vulnerabilities specific to that version. To scan for the WordPress version, run the following command:

wpscan --url http://www.example.com --enumerate v

WPScan will scan the website and display the WordPress version in the output.

Step 4: Scan for WordPress Themes and Plugins

The next step is to scan for WordPress themes and plugins. WPScan can identify vulnerabilities in popular WordPress themes and plugins. To scan for WordPress themes and plugins, run the following command:

wpscan --url http://www.example.com --enumerate vp

WPScan will scan the website for WordPress themes and plugins and display a list of vulnerable themes and plugins in the output.

Step 5: Brute Force Attack

WPScan can also perform a brute force attack on the website’s login page to try to guess the username and password. To perform a brute force attack, run the following command:

wpscan --url http://www.example.com --wordlist /path/to/wordlist.txt --username admin

Replace “/path/to/wordlist.txt” with the path to your wordlist file and “admin” with the username you want to brute force. WPScan will try to guess the password for the specified username using the words in the wordlist file.

Step 6: Scan for Vulnerabilities

WPScan can scan for known vulnerabilities in WordPress sites using its vulnerability database. To scan for vulnerabilities, run the following command:

wpscan --url http://www.example.com --enumerate vp --wp-content-dir wp-content/plugins --vulnerable-detection

WPScan will scan the website for vulnerable plugins and display the results in the output.

Step 7: Report the Findings

Finally, it’s essential to report the findings to the website owner or administrator. Provide a detailed report of the vulnerabilities found, including the steps taken to exploit them. It’s important to give the website owner or administrator enough information to fix the vulnerabilities and prevent them from happening again.