Scan your WordPress site with WPScan on Arch Linux

WPScan is a well-known WordPress vulnerability scanner, designed to detect potential security flaws on your WordPress sites.

The tool is free and open-source, and is now available directly in the official Arch Linux repositories for a streamlined installation.

⚠️ LEGAL WARNING

This article is provided for educational purposes to help you secure your own sites. The author cannot be held responsible for any malicious use of this tool. Scanning third-party sites without authorization is illegal.

Installation#

Recommended method: Arch Linux repositories#

WPScan is available in the official Arch Linux repositories:

sudo pacman -S wpscan

This method automatically installs all required dependencies (Ruby, curl, libxml2, etc.).

Alternative method: Ruby Gem#

If you need the latest version from RubyGems:

# Install Ruby dependencies
sudo pacman -S ruby ruby-bundler

# Install via RubyGems
sudo gem install wpscan

Configuration and updates#

Update the vulnerability database#

After installation, update the vulnerability database:

wpscan --update

WPVulnDB API token (optional)#

For detailed results, get a free API token at WPVulnDB :

# Create the configuration file
mkdir -p ~/.wpscan
nano ~/.wpscan/scan.yml

Add your token:

cli_options:
  api_token: YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE

Usage#

Basic full scan#

Full scan of a WordPress site with verbose output:

wpscan --url https://your-site.com --verbose

Plugin scan#

Scan installed plugins and their vulnerabilities:

# All installed plugins
wpscan --url https://your-site.com --enumerate plugins

# Vulnerable plugins only
wpscan --url https://your-site.com --enumerate vp

Theme scan#

Scan themes and their vulnerabilities:

# All installed themes
wpscan --url https://your-site.com --enumerate themes

# Vulnerable themes only
wpscan --url https://your-site.com --enumerate vt

User enumeration#

Enumerate WordPress user accounts:

wpscan --url https://your-site.com --enumerate users

Specific vulnerability scan#

Search for known vulnerabilities (TimThumb, etc.):

wpscan --url https://your-site.com --enumerate tt

Useful options#

• --verbose: Verbose mode for more details
• --output file.txt: Save results to a file
• --random-agent: Use a random User-Agent
• --proxy http://proxy:port: Use a proxy
• --rate-limit 1/2s: Limit request rate

Full example#

wpscan --url https://your-site.com \
       --enumerate vp,vt,tt,users \
       --verbose \
       --output report.txt \
       --random-agent

Best practices#

Legality and ethics#

• Only scan your own sites or those with written authorization
• Respect robots.txt and terms of service
• Use reasonable delays between requests

Performance#

• Use --rate-limit to avoid overloading the server
• Prefer targeted scans over full scans for quick checks
• Save results for future comparison

Security#

• Keep your WPVulnDB API token confidential
• Regularly update WPScan with wpscan --update
• Combine results with other security tools