WordPress Bug Bounty

Table of Contents

❌ Pros and Cons of Bug Hunting

💡 Top 10 WordPress Bug Bounty Tips

🛠️ Prepare WordPress for​ Testing

🧪 CVE-2024-6770 Exploit Full Demo

⚙️ Automating WordPress Plugin Testing

The WordPress bug bounty rewards researchers for finding vulnerabilities in plugins, themes, and WordPress core. With over 60,000 plugins—many built by junior developers—there’s a vast landscape of bugs waiting to be discovered.

While simple bugs like basic XSS or CSRF might not yield large payouts, they offer critical learning opportunities. Reporting bugs responsibly builds your resume, earns CVEs, and demonstrates real-world security skills.

This guide covers everything you need to start: setting up your local testing environment, identifying vulnerabilities, reporting responsibly, and earning payouts through top programs like Wordfence and Patchstack.

Bug bounty programs do more than reward individual researchers — they actively improve the security of the entire WordPress ecosystem which powers over 43% of all websites in the world.

Newer volunteers often start by probing small or recently released plugins, which makes it easier to learn, while experienced players focus on widely used or technically complex ones.

Therefore actively testing the entire WordPress attack surface.

When a vulnerability is found, the researcher is rewarded — sometimes with a CVE ID, sometimes with cash payouts, depending on severity and scope. These findings are then responsibly disclosed to the plugin developer, who often releases a security patch within days.

This feedback loop creates a ripple effect:

• Developers improve their coding practices.

• Users receive safer updates.

• Researchers build real-world skills and reputations.

• The entire ecosystem becomes harder to exploit.

Bug bounty programs make WordPress stronger — not through top-down enforcement, but through collaborative, community-driven security. 

💡 It’s a modern, decentralized approach — almost an ideal system by design, where everyone benefits and the web becomes safer through open collaboration.

Nothing if you are ready to learn. But it would be nice to know…

• WordPress + Plugins: Understand how plugins extend WordPress functionality. Most vulnerabilities exist in third-party plugins, making them the ideal place to begin.

• XSS (Cross-Site Scripting): One of the most common plugin flaws. Learn how malicious scripts get injected and executed through unsanitized input fields. (See: CVE-2024-6770 for an example.)

• Automation Basics: Familiarity with Bash, Python, or PowerShell can help you write scripts to test at scale and speed up your workflow.

• Burp Suite: A must-have tool for intercepting HTTP traffic and manipulating requests. Ideal for testing forms, AJAX endpoints, and plugin functionality.

• Docker or Local Hosting: Set up WordPress safely using Docker or XAMPP so you can test in a sandboxed environment without risk.

Patchstack

Focus: A broader bounty program covering all WordPress plugins and themes, regardless of install count.

💰 Payout Structure

• Monthly total prize pool: $8,850+

• Top prize each month: $2,000

• Per-report payouts:
  Range from $300 to $14,400+, depending on:

  • Plugin install base

  • Vulnerability impact (RCE, XSS, SQLi, etc.)

  • Uniqueness and difficulty of the exploit

📌 Scope

• All plugins/themes in the WordPress ecosystem are eligible.

• Rewards scale with:

  • Active install count (e.g. 10k vs. 1M)

  • Technical impact (e.g. RCE > CSRF)

🎁 Perks

• Monthly leaderboard: Compete with other researchers globally.

• Public researcher profile: Showcase your contributions.

• CVE assignment: Vulnerabilities get official tracking numbers.

• Active community: Events, discussions, and internal collaboration.

• Transparency reports: Patchstack publicly discloses fixed vulnerabilities.

Latest Data and Payouts: Patchstack Bug Bounty

🔴 Cons

• Low Rewards for Basic Bugs
  Simple XSS or CSRF issues may only pay $80–$300 unless they affect a popular plugin.

• Time-Intensive
  Testing plugins manually or setting up automation takes effort and persistence.

• Duplicate Submissions Are Common
  Someone may already have reported the vulnerability, disqualifying your submission.

• Delayed Payouts
  Some programs only pay once the vendor releases a patch, which can take weeks or months.

• No Guarantee on Smaller Plugins
  Wordfence only accepts plugins with 50k+ installs; Patchstack might not reward all low-severity issues unless they earn leaderboard points.

Want to break into WordPress bug bounty hunting and actually start earning? Here are 10 practical tips for beginners looking to find plugin vulnerabilities, earn CVEs, and get paid.

1. Start with Small Vulnerable Plugins

Use intentionally vulnerable plugins or outdated versions to learn how real WordPress plugin vulnerabilities work. Practice with known bugs like CVE-2024-6770.

2. Master the Basics of WordPress Plugins

Understand how plugins are structured, where input/output happens, and what common attack surfaces exist (forms, AJAX, REST endpoints).

3. Learn to Detect XSS and CSRF First

Cross-Site Scripting and Cross-Site Request Forgery are the most common bugs in WordPress. They’re beginner-friendly and frequently found in plugin settings or contact forms.

4. Use a Local Testing Environment

Set up a WordPress bug bounty lab with Docker, Local WP, or XAMPP. Never test on live sites—use sandboxed environments.

5. Automate Plugin Testing at Scale

Use tools like curl, wp-cli, PHPStan, and regex scripts to mass-download, install, and scan plugins. Automation is key to testing hundreds of plugins efficiently.

6. Get Comfortable with Burp Suite

Burp is a must-have tool for intercepting and modifying HTTP traffic. Learn how to use it to find parameter tampering, missing CSRF nonces, and XSS entry points.

7. Focus on Plugins with 50k+ Installs

Especially if submitting to Wordfence bug bounty, where only popular plugins qualify for payouts. Prioritize plugins with large user bases for higher bounty potential.

8. Write Clear Proof of Concept Reports

Your report should include steps to reproduce, impact, and a working payload. A clean write-up increases your chance of being rewarded and credited with a CVE.

9. Follow Disclosure Rules Strictly

Submit bugs privately through Wordfence or Patchstack. Don’t tweet or blog about the bug until it’s patched.

10. Track Your Progress and Build a Portfolio

Use GitHub or a blog to share your public CVEs, write-ups, and tools (once disclosed). Patchstack also offers public researcher profiles to showcase your work.

• Take 1 minute to register a researcher account at Wordfence.

• If you don’t have WordPress installed locally, click on one of the guides and follow the steps to install it. You can also host WordPress in the cloud which should be more secure; however, make sure you have full access to the environment (GoDaddy or serverless hosting won’t work).

• Click the buttons below to download the guide to reproduce the vulnerability, a basic list of XSS payloads for later, and a plugin with an XSS vulnerability. Open the guide, install the plugin, and go from there. The files provided are for educational testing purposes only in a controlled and authorized environment.

• Install and activate the vulnerable VForm plugin from the provided .zip archive.

• Go to Dashboard → Vform.

• Click “Add New” to create a new form.

• Click “Add Form Element” on the top left.

• Select “Full Name” to add the input field.

• Click “Submit” to add the submit button.

• Click “Save” (top right), then return to the main Vform screen.

• On any page, insert the shortcode:
  [vform id="1"]

• Open that page and enter the following payload in the First name field: <svg onload=alert(1)>

• Click Submit.

• Now go to Dashboard → Vform → Entries.

• You’ll see the XSS payload executes in the admin’s browser — confirming stored XSS without authentication.

Why Scale Matters

• Manual testing = slow, limited results

• Scalable automation = higher chances of discovering WordPress plugin vulnerabilities before others

• Essential for reporting multiple bugs to Wordfence, Patchstack, and other bounty programs

Testing at scale requires full automation of each step in the process. Manually testing hundreds of plugins is neither practical nor efficient, so automating the workflow is essential. Here’s how you can approach it:

1. Mass Download Plugins

Use tools like curl, wget, or even custom browser extensions to bulk-download plugin ZIP files from trusted repositories. You can also scrape plugin lists or leverage APIs provided by platforms like WordPress.

2. Filter Plugins for Vulnerabilities

Once you’ve downloaded the plugins, filter out ones that seem potentially vulnerable or have “code smells.” Use static analysis tools such as:

• Regex: Identify suspicious patterns in code (e.g., unescaped inputs, eval functions, SQL queries).
• Snyk: Check for known vulnerabilities in plugin dependencies.
• PHPStan: Perform static analysis to catch issues in PHP code.

3. Mass Install Plugins

Automate the installation process using tools like Bash, Python, or PowerShell scripts to deploy plugins to test environments. WordPress CLI (wp-cli) can also be incredibly useful for batch installation and activation of plugins.

4. Test for Vulnerabilities in Batches

Once installed, run your testing processes in batches:

• Observe how the plugins execute.
• Focus on areas prone to vulnerabilities, such as file uploads, JavaScript execution, or database queries.
• Utilize tools like Burp Suite or OWASP ZAP to identify vulnerabilities dynamically.

5. Erase the Testing Environment

After each batch, completely wipe the test environment. Plugins, especially low-quality ones, can leave behind database changes, temporary files, or even malicious scripts. Use tools like Docker containers, virtual machines, or cloud snapshots to reset the environment quickly and reliably.

6. Automate Everything

Automate as much of this process as possible. Use scripts and tools tailored to your setup:

• Bash for Linux environments.
• Python for its libraries and versatility.
• PowerShell for Windows-based workflows.

Every step—downloading, filtering, installing, testing, and cleaning up—should be automated. Without automation, scaling the process is impossible.

Tools and Techniques Recap:

• Mass Download: curl, APIs, browser extensions.
• Filtering: Regex, Snyk, PHPStan.
• Installation: Bash, Python, PowerShell, wp-cli.
• Testing: Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, automated scanners.
• Environment Cleanup: Docker, cloud snapshots, or scripted reset processes.

Remember: automation is key. Without it, testing at scale isn’t achievable. Treat Bash, Python, and PowerShell as your best friends and optimize your workflow at every stage.