Hackers exploit critical vulnerability in popular WordPress theme component WordPress admins should check if their sites use the Slider Revolution plug-in and update it immediately, researchers said By Lucian Constantin | 04 September 14.

Attackers are actively exploiting a critical vulnerability in a WordPress plug-in that’s used by a large number of themes, researchers from two security companies warned Wednesday.

The vulnerability affects versions 4.1.4 and older of Slider Revolution, a commercial WordPress plug-in for creating mobile-friendly content display sliders. The flaw was fixed in Slider Revolution 4.2 released in February, but some themes — collections of files or templates that determine the overall look of a site — still bundle insecure versions of the plug-in.

The vulnerability can be exploited to execute a local file inclusion (LFI) attack that gives hackers access to a WordPress site’s wp-config.php file, researchers from Web security firm Sucuri said in a blog post. This sensitive file contains database access credentials that can be used to compromise the whole site, the researchers said.