Top Five Issues with Nulled Themes & Plugin

For WordPress, the journey started right in 2003. WordPress was started as a simple tool to help you start a blog. Over the last few years, it has evolved into a powerful content management system. The credit goes to plugins and its developer.

Plugins are majorly used to ease services running on a web server. Apart from this, plugin plays a vital role in the WordPress ecosystem, after all, they are essential blocks for building great websites.

There are more than 48,000 free plugins available right now on the WordPress.org plugin directory. Also, thousands of more nulled plugins are freely available on third party websites like torrents, Github. While the verified WordPress plugins can be a boon, the nulled ones are as detrimental as it gets.

What are Nulled themes and plugin?

Now, let’s come to Nulled themes and plugins. Nulled plugins are pirated versions of premium WordPress plugins. These plugins are unethically spread over the internet. In most cases, these plugins and themes are used in pervasive malware campaigns and act as a bait to trap many of the freemium users.

Are nulled themes and plugins safe?

Nulled plugins may lure people by its free cost, however, it brings serious ramifications with it. Most nulled plugins contain malware in its script code. When you download an extension from a third-party source other than the developer, you have no access to its support.

Reasons To Avoid Using Nulled Themes & Plugins

1. Security failure:

Nulled WordPress themes and plugins are extremely hazardous for WordPress security, after all, they carry malware-trojans. The script code of the plugins is altered with the malicious code, it spread across different files to disguise itself which makes it hard to detect and fix by the firewall when the wordpress website is hacked. Using nulled plugins could put you in extreme danger. In the worst-case scenario, your website might be de-indexed from search engines.

2. Malware-Intrusion infection:

As the plugins are available via third party sources, it becomes difficult to identify the malware bound with the PHP script. It’s easy to fall onto the trap because it lures us. But on a long ago, you would always regret using a Nulled theme and plugin. Most of the time Nulled themes and plugins are affected with malware by Intruders. Once the infected plugin is installed, the hidden malicious code becomes active which triggers the security system of the website. It then creates a backdoor that enables (RCE) Remote Code Execution for hackers to access your website. Thus, installing a nulled theme and plugin is not a good idea.

3.Privacy:

The malicious code hidden inside the plugins can deteriorate the WordPress ecosystem. These codes are configured to harvest user credentials. The malicious code steals information from your WordPress site and uploads it to the hacker’s domain on the dark web. The harvested information may include your user-ID, password, employee details, email addresses. If you run an online store or e-commerce website, then the credential information of your clients can also be at risk.

4.Lack of security updates:

Every other day, new exploits and intrusions are released. This leaves your WordPress site with an outdated version which may be malicious and insecure. Developers regularly release updates to fix bugs, add new features, patch. Nulled WordPress themes and plugins cannot receive important updates because neither they have a digital signature nor a general license key. Since nulled theme and plugin can’t be updated nor can be refurbished, hence your website starts misbehaving.

5.Lack of support to Developers:

Nulled extensions can help you get all the aspects of a premium plugin or theme, but they won’t be able to provide you with all the benefits that a paying customer gets. Every WordPress user needs support and documentation, which are provided by the developers. The use of pirated themes and plugins always discourages the developer. When you pay for a premium product, you get the option to reach out directly to the developer in case if you encounter any issues with the product. But if you use a pirated version you get ZERO support. Such unethical and immoral practices discourage developers from creating other new innovative software.

My website is infected, what’s next?

The more you delay, the more you suffer. So opt Astra malware cleanup program today for a better tomorrow. You just need to follow these simple steps:

1. Sign up for Astra’s malware cleanup program
2. Update your server credentials and there you go.

Our security engineers and developers will clean the infection theme and plugins, all the hidden backdoors, and RATs(Remote Access Trojans) from your website within 6-8 hours. Astra’s hacker tested Firewall is going to be then deployed on your website post-cleanup to make sure protection from such attacks within the future.