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Managed Plugin Updates: Plugin Security Alerts

Updated on February 21st, 2023

Plugin Security Alerts from Flywheel provide site owners and organization members with critical security information via email when a vulnerable plugin is detected.

In addition, the Flywheel dashboard keeps track of plugin vulnerabilities so you can quickly manage and update outdated plugins that could put your site at risk.

Note

This article only applies to sites enrolled in Managed Plugin Updates. For information about Plugin Security Alerts for all other sites, click here.

Flywheel scans for plugin vulnerabilities every 24 hours with WPScan, we can not guarantee all vulnerabilities will be detected by the plugin researcher.

Setting plugin update frequency

Flywheel does not immediately update vulnerable plugins for sites enrolled in Managed Plugin Updates, since these updates run on a set schedule.

For maximum security, we suggest setting your plugin update frequency to daily, which will ensure any vulnerable plugins are updated within 24 hours. If you’d rather stick with a weekly update frequency, any vulnerable plugins will be updated during the next cycle. In this case, we recommend updating the vulnerable plugins manually from the WP admin area.

Note

For instructions on how to change the plugin update frequency for one particular site, click here. You can also set the plugin update frequency for all your sites by following the steps here.

Email alerts

If a vulnerable plugin is detected on your site(s) during our nightly scans, the site’s owner or all organization members (if the site is owned by an org) will receive an email that lists the sites with the plugin currently installed.

Clicking the site name will take you to the site’s dashboard on Flywheel, where you can learn more about the vulnerability and log in to your site to perform any recommended updates.

Clicking View Details will take you to the Vulnerabilities area of the Flywheel dashboard.

Note

Plugin Security Alerts will display the plugin name based on the plugin’s slug (internal name used by WordPress), which may differ from the plugin’s marketing name. For example, WPBakery Page Builder’s slug is js_composer. The slug will often correspond to the plugin directory name.

Viewing vulnerabilities on the Flywheel dashboard

Plugins tab

The Vulnerabilities area of the Plugins tab displays information about outdated and compromised plugins. When a vulnerability is detected, click Vulnerability details to view more comprehensive info from WPScan. Click the Update in WP Admin link to log into your site and run any necessary updates.

Managed Plugin Updates page

For a more holistic view of vulnerable plugins across your sites, head to the Vulnerabilties tab of the Managed Plugin Updates page. Here you’ll see a list of plugins: clicking Details for a particular plugin will reveal which site(s) it’s installed on, and includes links to the WP Admin where the plugin can be updated.

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