Title: Exploit Scanner
Author: Donncha O Caoimh (a11n)
Published: <strong>June 26, 2008</strong>
Last modified: June 5, 2017

---

Search plugins

This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**.
It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when
used with more recent versions of WordPress.

![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/exploit-scanner.svg)

# Exploit Scanner

 By [Donncha O Caoimh (a11n)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/donncha/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/exploit-scanner.1.5.2.zip)

 * [Details](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/exploit-scanner/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/exploit-scanner/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/exploit-scanner/#installation)
 * [Development](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/exploit-scanner/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/exploit-scanner/)

## Description

This plugin searches the files on your website, and the posts and comments tables
of your database for anything suspicious. It also examines your list of active plugins
for unusual filenames.

It does not remove anything. That is left to the user to do.

Latest MD5 hash values for Exploit Scanner:

 * 17e2ccfc834d691bc68cc5c64f9bed89 exploit-scanner.php (1.5.2)
 * 1d5f9d6220fe159cd44cb70a998a1cd7 hashes-4.6.php
 * fbdf61c17f65094c8e331e1e364acf68 hashes-4.6.1.php
 * 477d128d84802e3470cec408424a8de3 hashes-4.7.php
 * d53210f999847fbd6f5a2ecac0ad42f2 hashes-4.7.5.php

Latest SHA1 hash values for Exploit Scanner:

 * 1decc1e47a53d1cab9e8f1ef15b31682198367ee exploit-scanner.php (1.5.2)
 * 5cec64380a2acdc876fd22fbbbbf8c335df1ed3f hashes-4.6.php
 * 99d9e7be23a350f3d1962d0f41e7b4e28c00841e hashes-4.6.1.php
 * 1eeab377a1afc6d776827a063678d2461b29e71d hashes-4.7.php
 * 8c890a6af26bb74e9d17e5d2b21d6be27764da45 hashes-4.7.5.php

See the [Exploit Scanner homepage](http://ocaoimh.ie/exploit-scanner/) for further
information.

### Interpreting the Results

It is likely that this scanner will find false positives (i.e. files which do not
contain malicious code). However, it is best to err
 on the side of caution; if 
you are unsure then ask in the [Support Forums](https://wordpress.org/support/),
download a fresh copy of a plugin, search the Internet for similar situations, et
cetera. You should be most concerned if the scanner is: making matches around unknown
external links; finding base64 encoded text in modified core files or the `wp-config.
php` file; listing extra admin accounts; or finding content in posts which you did
not put there.

Understanding the three different result levels:

 * **Severe:** results that are often strong indicators of a hack (though they are
   not definitive proof)
 * **Warning:** these results are more commonly found in innocent circumstances 
   than Severe matches, but they should still be treated with caution
 * **Note:** lowest priority, showing results that are very commonly used in legitimate
   code or notifications about events such as skipped files

### Help! I think I have been hacked!

Follow the guides from the Codex:

 * [Codex: FAQ – My site was hacked](https://codex.wordpress.org/FAQ_My_site_was_hacked)
 * [Codex: Hardening WordPress](https://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress)

Ensure that you change **all** of your WordPress related passwords (site, FTP, MySQL,
etc.). A regular backup routine
 (either manual or plugin powered) is extremely 
useful; if you ever find that your site has been hacked you can easily restore your
site from a clean backup and fresh set of files and, of course, use a new set of
passwords.

### Updates

Updates to the plugin will be posted here, to [Holy Shmoly!](http://ocaoimh.ie/)
and the [WordPress Exploit Scanner](http://ocaoimh.ie/exploit-scanner/) page will
always link to the newest version.

### Other Languages

Unfortunately for people using WordPress versions for other locales some of the 
file hashes may be incorrect as some strings have to be hardcoded in their translated
form. Here are some file hashes for WordPress in other languagues provided separately
by other members of the community:

 * [Japanese](http://wpbiz.jp/files/exploit-scanner-hashes/ja/) – thanks to Naoko
 * [German](http://talkpress.de/artikel/exploit-scanner-hash-deutsch-wordpress) –
   thanks to Robert Wetzlmayr

The hash files should only be declaring an array called $filehashes and the majority
of the hashes should still be the same.

## Installation

 1. Download and unzip the plugin.
 2. Copy the exploit-scanner directory into your plugins folder.
 3. Visit your Plugins page and activate the plugin.
 4. A new menu item called “Exploit Scanner” will be available under the Tools menu.

## FAQ

  Installation Instructions

 1. Download and unzip the plugin.
 2. Copy the exploit-scanner directory into your plugins folder.
 3. Visit your Plugins page and activate the plugin.
 4. A new menu item called “Exploit Scanner” will be available under the Tools menu.

  How do I fix the out of memory error?

Scanning your website can take quite a bit of memory. The plugin tries to allocate
128MB but sometimes that’s not enough. You can modify the amount of memory PHP has
access to from within the plugin admin page. You can also limit the max size of 
scanned files. Reduce this number to skip more files but be aware that it may miss
hacked files. Any skipped files are listed after scanning. Memory is also used if
you have deep directories because of the way the scanner works. It will help if 
you clean out any cache directories (wp-content/cache/ for example) before scanning.

## Reviews

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e33ec1c5454eb96d7acd97ac6b73d0498a93961c54b249c849a0e968b9584831?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[830 matches in a clean installation](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/830-matches-in-a-clean-installation/)󠁿

 [Antonio Augusto](https://profiles.wordpress.org/antonio24073/) April 11, 2021

Apparently abandoned or confuse.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/93e8a924bd86a93a3add2c97a53930d4e7acb927b69708cf81b9d11ffdb9dc0d?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Doesn´t work at all](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/doesnt-work-at-all-164/)󠁿

 [C77](https://profiles.wordpress.org/c77/) July 6, 2019

Doesn´t work at all… it always shows an error, try later.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/a98be547cfd47beddac1bb7158644cc0dce7690870f7db92c6813363d6566e1d?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Doesn’t work](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/doesnt-work-1910/)󠁿

 [scorpiotiger](https://profiles.wordpress.org/scorpiotiger/) July 2, 2018

Just gives an error: {“status”:”error”,”message”:”$this->files was not an array”,”
data”:{“start”:250,”files”:”b:0;”}} Others have posted in the support section and
not had responses and the plugin has not been updated for a long time, so it looks
to be an abandoned project.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/db2a484c92757a5ede4e89afd31abed5684c346992de6d20d6629381a339853a?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Am I a paranoid?](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/am-i-a-paranoid/)󠁿

 [carolzeroum](https://profiles.wordpress.org/carolzeroum/) March 13, 2018

Exploit Scanner is a useless plugin. I mean, it does nothing. It just lists hundreds
of files of your server. Says nothing about them. And does nothing either. In the
end, it says you are a PARANOID. If you have any further worries. I think I will
create a Wordpress plugin too.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ee421d3fd85b44d745307f4aba5cdfac6c8b05237fbfe7d443b9827d164ba234?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Great security scan plugin but..](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-security-scan-plugin-but/)󠁿

 [Eduard Doloc](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rwky/) November 14, 2017

Great plugin, but it’s not well documented. Anyways, it works on version 4.8.3 and
theoretically any version as long as you generate (if you don’t have) the hashes
for your wordpress version; in my case I had to generate for 4.8.3 and it did a 
good job 🙂

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/40eb674eecbca2ab381524c2d829e2d42e7c768e8235ee30b7fe36f4852e2167?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Great, if you have current hashes](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-if-you-have-current-hashes/)󠁿

 [enacta2](https://profiles.wordpress.org/enacta2/) June 25, 2017

Works really well. I have it installed next to TAC and VIP Scanner on my localhost
test site. The trick is you need to use current hashes, and none are available for
Wordpress 4.8 and higher on the Internets. So, here are hashes for WordPress 4.8.
And easy to follow directions to create new hashes for newer versions of WordPress:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/here-you-go-hashes-4-8-php/

 [ Read all 41 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/exploit-scanner/reviews/)

## Contributors & Developers

“Exploit Scanner” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Donncha O Caoimh (a11n) ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/donncha/)
 *   [ Jon Cave ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/duck_/)
 *   [ Ryan Boren ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ryan/)
 *   [ Andrew Ozz ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/azaozz/)
 *   [ Thorsten Ott ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tott/)
 *   [ Gary Pendergast ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/pento/)
 *   [ Philip John ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/philipjohn/)

[Translate “Exploit Scanner” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/exploit-scanner)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/exploit-scanner/), 
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/exploit-scanner/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/exploit-scanner/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/exploit-scanner/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 1.5.2

 * Added hashes for WordPress 4.7.5

#### 1.5.1

 * WordPress 4.6 hashes
 * WordPress 4.6.1 hashes
 * WordPress 4.7 hashes

#### 1.5

 * WordPress 4.5.3 hashes
 * Move to follow WP versioning system

#### 1.4.12

 * WordPress 4.5.2 hashes

#### 1.4.11

 * WordPress 4.5 hashes
 * WordPress 4.5.1 hashes

#### 1.4.10

 * WordPress 4.4.1 hashes

#### 1.4.9

 * WordPress 4.4 hashes

#### 1.4.8

 * WordPress 4.3.1 security release hashes
 * Other missing hashes

#### 1.4.7

 * WordPress 4.3 hashes

#### 1.4.6

 * WordPress 4.2.3 hashes
 * WordPress 4.2.4 hashes

#### 1.4.5

 * WordPress 4.2.2 hashes

#### 1.4.4

 * WordPress 3.7.3 hashes
 * WordPress 3.7.4 hashes
 * WordPress 3.7.5 hashes
 * WordPress 3.7.6 hashes
 * WordPress 3.7.7 hashes
 * WordPress 3.8.4 hashes
 * WordPress 3.8.5 hashes
 * WordPress 3.8.6 hashes
 * WordPress 3.8.7 hashes
 * WordPress 3.9.4 hashes
 * WordPress 3.9.5 hashes
 * WordPress 4.0.2 hashes
 * WordPress 4.0.3 hashes
 * WordPress 4.0.4 hashes
 * WordPress 4.1.4 hashes
 * WordPress 4.2.1 hashes

#### 1.4.3

 * WordPress 4.1.3 hashes

#### 1.4.2

 * WordPress 4.2 hashes

#### 1.4.1

 * WordPress 3.9.3, 4.1, 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 hashes

#### 1.4

 * Remove an example link to a hacked site
 * Fixed the eval() check incorrectly matching function names that end in “eval”
 * Fixed some PHP warnings
 * WordPress 3.5.2 hashes
 * WordPress 3.6 and 3.6.1 hashes
 * WordPress 3.7, 3.7.1 and 3.7.2 hashes
 * WordPress 3.8, 3.8.1, 3.8.2 and 3.7.3 hashes
 * WordPress 3.9, 3.9.1 and 3.9.2 hashes
 * WordPress 4.0 and 4.0.1 hashes

#### 1.3.3

 * WordPress 3.5 and 3.5.1 hashes

#### 1.3.2

 * WordPress 3.4.2 hashes

#### 1.3.1

 * WordPress 3.4.1 hashes

#### 1.3

 * Detect unknown files in the wp-admin and wp-includes directories
 * WordPress 3.4 hashes

#### 1.2.1

 * WordPress 3.3.2 hashes

#### 1.2

 * WordPress 3.3.1 hashes
 * Use help tabs introduced in WordPress 3.3
 * Help prevent one cause of hanging scans (MySQL error 1153)

#### 1.1

 * Scan for and fix old, vulnerable TimThumb scripts
 * Detect old export files even if they’re larger than the size limit
 * WordPress 3.3 hashes

#### 1.0.5

 * WordPress 3.2 and 3.2.1 hashes

#### 1.0.4

 * WordPress 3.1.4 hashes
 * Suspicious pattern updates and tweaks

#### 1.0.3

 * Detection of export files left by incomplete imports.
 * WordPress 3.1.3 hashes

#### 1.0.2

 * WordPress 3.0.6 and 3.1.2 hashes

#### 1.0.1

 * WordPress 3.1.1 hashes

#### 1.0

 * Core file diffs
 * WordPress 3.1 hashes
 * Updated suspicious patterns

#### 0.97.6

 * WordPress 3.0.5 hashes

#### 0.97.5

 * WordPress 3.0.4 hashes
 * Dropped wp-content from hashes

#### 0.97.4

 * WordPress 3.0.3 compatibility

#### 0.97.3

 * 3.0.2 compatibility

#### 0.97.2

 * 3.0.1 compatibility

#### 0.97.1

 * PHP 4 compatibility

#### 0.97

 * AJAX paging
 * simplified results system (now only 3 levels)
 * contextual help
 * moved to Tools menu section
 * a number of backend changes

#### 0.96

 * Compatibility for WordPress 3.0

#### 0.95

 * Added “exploits” scan level for obvious hacker exploit code.
 * Stored results for later review.
 * Rearranged layout of results.
 * Paged scanning so plugin scans 50 files at a time to avoid timeout errors.
 * Only show “General Info” to non MU sites (it’s too expensive for large MU sites)

## Meta

 *  Version **1.5.2**
 *  Last updated **8 years ago**
 *  Active installations **9,000+**
 *  WordPress version ** 3.3 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **4.7.33**
 *  Language
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/exploit-scanner/)
 * Tags
 * [hack](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/hack/)[hacking](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/hacking/)
   [scanner](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/scanner/)[security](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/security/)
   [spam](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/spam/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/exploit-scanner/advanced/)

## Ratings

 3.2 out of 5 stars.

 *  [  18 5-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/exploit-scanner/reviews/?filter=5)
 *  [  4 4-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/exploit-scanner/reviews/?filter=4)
 *  [  1 3-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/exploit-scanner/reviews/?filter=3)
 *  [  3 2-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/exploit-scanner/reviews/?filter=2)
 *  [  14 1-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/exploit-scanner/reviews/?filter=1)

[Add my review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/exploit-scanner/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/exploit-scanner/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Donncha O Caoimh (a11n) ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/donncha/)
 *   [ Jon Cave ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/duck_/)
 *   [ Ryan Boren ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ryan/)
 *   [ Andrew Ozz ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/azaozz/)
 *   [ Thorsten Ott ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/tott/)
 *   [ Gary Pendergast ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/pento/)
 *   [ Philip John ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/philipjohn/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/exploit-scanner/)