How To Install WPScan on Ubuntu 14.04

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install WPScan in Ubuntu 14.04. For those of you who didn’t know, WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world, powering millions of websites. However, its widespread usage also makes it a prime target for hackers and malicious actors. To ensure the security of your WordPress installation, it is crucial to regularly scan for vulnerabilities and potential threats. WPScan is a powerful and versatile security scanner designed specifically for WordPress.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of WPScan in Ubuntu 14.04.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 14.04, and any other Debian-based distribution.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install WPScan on Ubuntu 14.04

Step 1. To ensure a smooth installation process, it is essential to start with an updated system. Open your terminal and run the following commands to update and upgrade your Ubuntu 14.04 system:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Step 2. Install WPScan on Ubuntu.

WPScan is written in Ruby, so we need to install Ruby and its necessary dependencies. Run the following commands to install Ruby and the required libraries:

apt-get install git ruby-dev ruby1.9.3 libxml2 libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev

Now we need to clone the wpscan package from GitHub:

cd /opt
git clone https://github.com/wpscanteam/wpscan.git

Once the download is finished, you will need to navigate to the wpscan directory and install the required ruby gems using bundler:

cd wpscan
sudo gem install bundler && bundle install --without test

To update WPScan, simply use the following command:

ruby wpscan.rb --update

How to use WPScan

You can use WPScan through arguments. You can get a complete list of arguments by executing the following command:

ruby wpscan.rb --help

Scan WordPress plugins:

ruby wpscan.rb --url http(s)://www.yoursiteurl.com --enumerate p

Scan Vulnerable plugins:

ruby wpscan.rb --url http(s)://www.yoursiteurl.com --enumerate vp

Scan themes:

ruby wpscan.rb --url http(s)://www.yoursiteurl.com --enumerate t

Scan vulnerable themes:

ruby wpscan.rb --url http(s)://www.yoursiteurl.com --enumerate vt

Scan user accounts:

ruby wpscan.rb --url http(s)://www.yoursiteurl.com --enumerate u

Scan for timthumb installations:

ruby wpscan.rb --url http(s)://www.yoursiteurl.com --enumerate tt

Congratulations! You have successfully installed WPScan. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the WordPress vulnerability scanner in the Ubuntu 14.04 system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official WPScan website.