Wordfence analysts report having detected a massive wave of attacks in the last couple of days, originating from 16,000 IPs and targeting over 1.6 million WordPress sites.
The threat actors target four WordPress plugins and fifteen Epsilon Framework themes, one of which has no available patch.
Some of the targeted plugins were patched all the way back in 2018, while others had their vulnerabilities addressed as recently as this week.
The affected plugins and their versions are:
- PublishPress Capabilities
- Kiwi Social Plugin
- Pinterest Automatic
- WordPress Automatic
The targeted Epsilon Framework themes are:
- Shapely
- NewsMag
- Activello
- Illdy
- Allegiant
- Newspaper X
- Pixova Lite
- Brilliance
- MedZone Lite
- Regina Lite
- Transcend
- Affluent
- Bonkers
- Antreas
- NatureMag Lite – No patch available
“In most cases, the attackers are updating the users_can_register option to enabled and setting the default_role option to administrator,” Wordfence explains.
“This makes it possible for attackers to register on any site as an administrator effectively taking over the site.”