Elementor Pro: An Asset or Liability for WordPress Users?
WordPress is an asset for most writers in the blogging community. With its user-friendly interface and extensive library of plugins, WordPress has become a go-to platform for bloggers and content creators.
As you must already know, these plugins are super useful tools to improve our website’s functionality. WordPress has many free and paid plugins covering various categories like SEO, e-commerce and more. However, not all plugins are safe and some of them are known to pose security risks, which is exactly what we’re discussing in this article.
Hackers can easily manipulate user data by exploiting bugs in various WordPress plugins.
Site scripting attacks, file deletion, and file upload vulnerabilities have been found in plugins such as Yoast SEO, Woo Commerce, and Elementor Pro. These vulnerabilities damage the website and the credibility of the brand.
One of the recent ones that had a security breach is Elementor Pro.
What is the Elementor Pro plug-in?
Elementor Pro is a WordPress page builder plugin that provides a one-stop solution to easily control website design in WordPress. This page builder plugin allows users to quickly create professional-looking websites without learning how to code! Installing this plugin on your website is super easy. The software is paid, but the free version offers many great features for your website as well.
Elementor Pro – A Gateway for Hackers
Although this plugin is extremely resourceful for bloggers, it has also served as a gateway for many hackers to enter and take control of websites. In the year 2023, numerous people and organizations have complained about their websites being hacked, displaying unwanted behavior, inserting unwanted code and losing control. The root cause of this problem is the broken access control on one of its modules, which allows hackers to modify or change options in the WordPress database.
According to the WordPress security company Patch Stack, the vulnerability issue has only affected the paid version of the plugin that has the WooCommerce plugin enabled. The free version, on the other hand, remains secure.
What can you do?
While reading about blogs and websites getting hacked is scary especially when you’re a content creator with so many online assets, there are some ways to stay protected and do damage control if you suspect something is off.
- Regularly updating your plugins is important to keep your website secure. Developers are constantly working on improving the plugins, fixing bugs, and addressing security issues. By updating, you get the latest security patches.
- Always check the reviews and ratings before installing plugins to know if they are reputable.
- Use security tools for an added layer of protection for your website.
- Make sure you have a backup of your website in case there’s a security breach. So you can always restore the site to your older version if anything goes wrong.
- In case you do notice something unusual, make sure you contact your plugin developer or a WordPress expert to ensure that your website is not compromised.
Final thoughts
Elementor Pro is a cool plugin for WordPress. But like anything else, it’s got its flaws. The thing is, we don’t know yet if any other plugin has the same problems, so if you’re a blogger or website owner, you can never be too careful. You wouldn’t want hackers getting their hands on your data! But the good news is that WordPress is working hard to fix this issue, so let’s hope they come up with a solution soon.
