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Outdated Plugins Drove Most Vulnerabilities in a Singapore WordPress Study
In a scan of 102 Singapore business WordPress sites, 34 with at least three outdated plugins accounted for 1,375 of 1,853 confirmed vulnerabilities (74.2%). Outdated plugins were also reported among sites with current WordPress core: 29 of 48 had confirmed plugin vulnerabilities, while 25 had outdated plugins.
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Key takeaways
- In a scan of 102 Singapore business WordPress sites, 34 with at least three outdated plugins accounted for 1,375 of 1,853 confirmed vulnerabilities (74.2%).
- Outdated plugins were also reported among sites with current WordPress core: 29 of 48 had confirmed plugin vulnerabilities, while 25 had outdated plugins.
- The reported overlap between outdated core and plugins reinforces that core updates alone do not address every maintenance gap.
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openai.comCreate a landscape editorial hero image for this Studio Global article: What did Equinet Academy’s Singapore WordPress Website Cybersecurity Study, based on passive automated scanning of 102 publicly accessible W. Article summary: The study’s central finding was that vulnerability exposure was heavily concentrated on websites with multiple outdated plugins—not simply those running outdated WordPress core. One-third of the sampled sites accounted f. Topic tags: general, general web, user generated. Style: premium digital editorial illustration, source-backed research mood, clean composition, high detail, modern web publication hero. Use reference image context only for broad subject, composition, and topical grounding; do not copy the exact image. Avoid: logos, brand marks, copyrighted characters, real person likenesses, fake screenshots, UI text, readable text, watermarks, charts with fa
A scan of 102 publicly accessible WordPress websites operated by Singapore-based businesses found that confirmed vulnerabilities were concentrated among sites with multiple outdated plugins. The 34 sites with three or more outdated plugins accounted for 1,375 of the 1,853 vulnerabilities detected—74.2% of the total.2 The figures point to plugin upkeep as an important part of website maintenance, alongside updates to WordPress core.
Most detected vulnerabilities were concentrated in a third of the sites
The 34 sites with at least three outdated plugins made up 33.3% of the sample but accounted for nearly three-quarters of its confirmed vulnerabilities.2 In other words, the findings were not evenly distributed across the websites scanned: sites with several outdated plugins carried a disproportionate share of the detected exposure.
This is a concentration in scan results, not proof that outdated plugins caused every finding. Nor does a detected vulnerability by itself establish that a site was compromised.
Current WordPress core did not rule out plugin exposure
The study figures also report that 29 of the 48 sites running current WordPress core (60.4%) had confirmed plugin vulnerabilities. Separately, 25 of those 48 sites (52.1%) had outdated plugins. These measures describe related but distinct things: an outdated plugin is not automatically the same as a confirmed vulnerability.
The reported figures also show overlap in the other direction: 39 of 41 sites with outdated WordPress core (95.1%) had outdated plugins. Those sites accounted for 1,283 detected vulnerabilities, or 69.2% of the total. Taken together, the counts suggest that core and plugin maintenance gaps often coexisted in the sample. The study is intended to provide local data on WordPress security risks among Singapore businesses.6
Why core updates alone are not enough
Updating WordPress core cannot, by itself, resolve outdated or vulnerable plugins. The figures make plugin inventory and update routines part of the practical response, alongside maintaining core and themes. WordPress guidance in the supplied material also recommends keeping software updated and maintaining backups.4
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A regular maintenance routine can include reviewing installed plugins, removing those no longer needed, applying available updates, and checking site function and backups as part of the process. Updates and checks are risk-reduction practices, not a guarantee that a website is secure.
What the scan can—and cannot—show
The reported study used automated scanning of publicly accessible sites and describes its approach as non-intrusive.7 Such findings are evidence of detectable exposure at the time of scanning. They do not, on their own, establish that a vulnerability was exploited, that a site was compromised, or that outdated software caused every detected issue.
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What is the short answer to "Outdated Plugins Drove Most Vulnerabilities in a Singapore WordPress Study"?
In a scan of 102 Singapore business WordPress sites, 34 with at least three outdated plugins accounted for 1,375 of 1,853 confirmed vulnerabilities (74.2%).
What are the key points to validate first?
In a scan of 102 Singapore business WordPress sites, 34 with at least three outdated plugins accounted for 1,375 of 1,853 confirmed vulnerabilities (74.2%). Outdated plugins were also reported among sites with current WordPress core: 29 of 48 had confirmed plugin vulnerabilities, while 25 had outdated plugins.
What should I do next in practice?
The reported overlap between outdated core and plugins reinforces that core updates alone do not address every maintenance gap.