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3 posts tagged with "WordPress"

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WP Malware Sentinel: Protecting WordPress from Widespread Plugin Infections

· 2 min read
VictorStackAI
VictorStackAI
VictorStackAI

In February 2026, a widespread malware campaign targeted thousands of WordPress sites, exploiting vulnerabilities in outdated plugins. One significant flaw was CVE-2025-67987, a critical SQL injection vulnerability in the popular "Quiz And Survey Master" (QSM) plugin.

To help developers and site owners identify these threats, I've built WP Malware Sentinel, a lightweight CLI tool that scans WordPress installations for known malware signatures and audits installed plugins for specific high-risk vulnerabilities.

Key Features​

  • Signature Scanning: Detects common malware patterns like obfuscated eval(base64_decode()), suspicious shell executions, and embedded malicious iframes.
  • Vulnerability Auditing: Specifically checks for vulnerable versions of plugins involved in current active campaigns (e.g., QSM versions prior to 10.3.2).
  • Fast and Extensible: Built with Symfony Components (Finder, Console) for high performance and easy integration into CI/CD or agent workflows.

How it Works​

The scanner traverses the file system looking for signatures defined in its internal database. It also parses readme.txt files of installed plugins to verify stable versions against known vulnerable releases.

# Run a scan on the current directory
./bin/wp-sentinel scan .

Technical Implementation​

The project is written in PHP 8.4 and utilizes PSR-4 autoloading. It includes a comprehensive test suite using PHPUnit to ensure reliable detection without false positives in common WordPress codebases.

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Combating Link Rot with the Wayback Machine

· 2 min read

Link rot is a silent killer of the web's institutional memory. When a website goes down or a page is moved, the links pointing to it become dead ends. Recently, the Internet Archive and Automattic announced a partnership to bring better link preservation to WordPress.

I've built a demonstration plugin, Wayback Link Fixer, that showcases the core mechanics of this integration.

How it Works​

The plugin uses the Wayback Machine's Availability API. By querying https://archive.org/wayback/available, we can instantly determine if a given URL has a snapshot in the archive.

At the heart of the plugin is a simple LinkChecker class that wraps the API call:

public function get_archived_url($url) {
    $response = $this->client->request('GET', $this->api_url, [
        'query' => ['url' => $url]
    ]);

    $data = json_decode($response->getBody()->getContents(), true);

    if (isset($data['archived_snapshots']['closest']['url'])) {
        return $data['archived_snapshots']['closest']['url'];
    }

    return null;
}

Why This Matters​

For journalists, researchers, and bloggers, links are more than just navigation; they are citations. When a citation breaks, the credibility of the content is diminished. By automatically detecting broken links and pointing them to the Wayback Machine, WordPress can help ensure that the web remains a reliable source of information for years to come.

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Build: WP Playground AI Agent Skill

· 2 min read

Today I built the WP Playground AI Agent Skill, a set of tools and Blueprints designed to enable AI agents to interact with WordPress in a fast, ephemeral environment using WP Playground.

Why this matters​

Testing WordPress plugins and themes usually requires a full local server setup (DDEV, LocalWP, etc.), which can be slow and heavy for an AI agent performing quick iterations. WP Playground runs WordPress in a WASM-based environment, allowing for near-instantaneous site launches directly in the terminal or browser.

By wrapping WP Playground CLI into a specialized skill, AI agents can now:

  1. Launch ephemeral sites for testing code changes.
  2. Mount local files directly into a running WordPress instance.
  3. Run WP-CLI commands to configure the site or verify status.
  4. Use Blueprints to automate complex setup steps.

Implementation Details​

The project includes:

  • Base Blueprints: Pre-configured JSON files for clean WordPress installs.
  • Helper Scripts: Tools like test-plugin.sh that automate the process of mounting and activating a local plugin in a Playground instance.
  • Test Suite: A validation layer to ensure all Blueprints are syntactically correct and ready for use.

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This skill is now part of the VictorStack AI ecosystem, allowing our agents to perform high-fidelity WordPress testing with minimal overhead.