Description
The Catcher24 Vulnerability Scanner provides an automated, enterprise-grade security audit for your WordPress installation. Designed for IT teams, developers, and security-conscious site owners, this lightweight connector bridges your WordPress environment with Catcher24’s powerful external scanning infrastructure.
Instead of running heavy, resource-intensive scans locally on your web server – which can slow down site performance and degrade the user experience – our plugin acts as a secure conduit. It triggers on-demand, cloud-based assessments to identify critical security flaws.
Core Capabilities:
- Targeted CMS Vulnerability Detection: Identifies vulnerable, outdated plugins, themes, and WordPress core versions using continuously updated threat intelligence templates.
- External Exposure Checks: Performs a non-intrusive perimeter check to discover exposed services or database ports that should not be publicly accessible.
- Minimal-Impact Auditing: Black-box scanning is performed entirely on Catcher24’s infrastructure, ensuring minimal performance impact on your WordPress host.
- Centralized Reporting: View high-level scan results directly within your WordPress admin dashboard, with deep-dive technical reports and remediation steps available in the Catcher24 dashboard.
How It Works:
- On-Demand Scanning: Start a deep, non-intrusive scan of your WordPress environment directly from your dashboard. The scan is executed by the Catcher24 platform against the specific target you created for your site.
- Live Progress Tracking: While the scan is running remotely, a lightweight WebSocket connection provides real-time progress updates directly in your WordPress UI.
- Direct Results: Once the scan is complete, the plugin pulls a high-level overview of the results straight from the Catcher24 API. No continuous background communication is needed.
- Deep Analysis: You can easily jump from the plugin into the Catcher24 platform to view the full, detailed results of any vulnerabilities, CVEs, or security threats found.
Note: This plugin requires an active Catcher24 account. The plugin initiates the scans and fetches the results, while all actual scanning operations occur safely and efficiently on the Catcher24 cloud.
Pricing and Licensing
The Catcher24 Connector plugin and all its integrated functionality are completely free to use.
Upon registering for a Catcher24 account—available via email, password, or social login—you automatically receive one free WordPress target, allowing a single WordPress site to be scanned at no cost.
Upgrade Path:
The plugin provides on-demand vulnerability scanning for new users. To unlock continuous scheduled scanning, DNS configuration auditing (SPF/DKIM/DMARC), and proactive SSL certificate monitoring, users can upgrade their target configuration within the Catcher24 dashboard.
Note: The free WordPress target is an introductory tier. Existing Catcher24 SaaS users cannot add a free target via the plugin.
Support
If you encounter any issues connecting your site to Catcher24 or running a scan, we are here to help.
- Documentation: Visit our full documentation at our help desk for detailed setup guides and troubleshooting.
Privacy & Data Usage
Transparency and data security are our top priorities. Because the Catcher24 Connector integrates with an external cloud service, here is exactly how your data is handled:
- No Background Tracking: The plugin does not continuously track user activity, visitor data, or stream telemetry in the background.
- On-Demand Execution: Communication with the Catcher24 API only occurs when you explicitly initiate a scan from your WordPress dashboard, or when the plugin fetches the results of that scan.
- Scan Data: During an active scan, the Catcher24 platform analyzes your site’s public-facing endpoints and structural data (like plugin versions and core files) to identify vulnerabilities.
- Data Storage: Scan results and vulnerability reports are stored securely in your Catcher24 cloud account.
External Services
This plugin connects to the external Catcher24 platform (including its API gateway and Keycloak authentication service) to perform on-demand vulnerability scans and retrieve security reports for your site.
- Free Account Authentication: The user signs into Catcher24 with a free account. During this process, standard user profile details (email, first name, last name) are authenticated securely.
- Target Registration: Once signed in, the user is asked to create a target. The WordPress site’s hostname and site name are prefilled for convenience.
- No Background Transmission: No data is sent to the Catcher24 platform without the user explicitly clicking a button or initiating the connection process. No visitor data or continuous server metrics are ever tracked in the background.
- Real-time Synchronization: When a target is selected, the plugin establishes a WebSocket connection to monitor changes for that target in the Catcher24 platform and automatically refresh the dashboard details.
- Service Provider: Catcher24.
- Service Links:
- Terms and Conditions: https://catcher24.com/terms-and-conditions/
- Privacy Policy: https://catcher24.com/privacy-policy/
Development
The source code for this plugin is managed in a public GitHub repository.
You can view the development history, report issues, and access the raw
source files (including build scripts) here:
https://github.com/catcher24/WordpressConnector
Screenshots
Installation
- Upload the plugin files to the
/wp-content/plugins/catcher24-connectordirectory, or install the plugin through the WordPress ‘Plugins’ screen directly. - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in WordPress.
- Navigate to the Catcher24 Setup menu in your WordPress admin dashboard.
- Follow the setup wizard to securely connect your site to your Catcher24 organization and assign your target slot.
FAQ
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Do I need a Catcher24 account to use this plugin?
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Yes. This plugin connects your WordPress site to the Catcher24 dashboard. You must have an active organization and available target slots in Catcher24 to utilize the scanning features.
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Will this plugin slow down my site?
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No. The Catcher24 Connector is built to be extremely lightweight. All resource-intensive tasks, such as vulnerability scanning and security analysis, are processed remotely on the Catcher24 infrastructure. The plugin only communicates with our API to start a scan and pull the results, meaning minimal impact on your server performance or page load speeds.
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Can I use this alongside other security plugins (like Wordfence or Sucuri)?
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Yes. Catcher24 Connector acts as an external auditor for your overall security posture and generally plays well with on-site firewalls and other security plugins.
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What happens when a vulnerability is detected?
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When Catcher24 identifies a vulnerability, you will receive an overview of the results directly in the plugin UI. You can view the full vulnerability details and mitigation steps in the Catcher24 platform.
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Will the scanner create test data or comments on my site?
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Yes. During the active scanning process, the Catcher24 infrastructure evaluates every discoverable endpoint on your site to test for vulnerabilities. Because comment forms are endpoints, the scanner may submit test comments to ensure those inputs are secure. You will see these test comments in your moderation queue, which you can safely review and delete.
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How do I disconnect my site?
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You can disconnect your site at any time simply by deleting the plugin from your WordPress installation.
Please note: Deleting the plugin only disconnects your website’s integration. It does not delete your Catcher24 account or any of your target data on the Catcher platform.
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How do I delete separate targets or my entire account?
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Individual target slots can be managed and deleted directly inside your Catcher24 cloud dashboard. If you wish to close your entire account, you can also initiate full account deletion from the dashboard settings.
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Is my data secure?
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Absolutely. All communication between your WordPress site and the Catcher24 platform is encrypted. The plugin only communicates when initiating a scan or pulling results; there is no continuous data streaming. We adhere to strict data privacy guidelines, including GDPR compliance.
Reviews
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Contributors & Developers
“Catcher24 Connector – Vulnerability Scanner” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
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Interested in development?
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Changelog
1.0.0
- Initial release of the Catcher24 Connector.
- Added secure setup wizard and organization binding.
- Integrated on-demand scanning with real-time WebSocket progress reporting.
- Added API integration for fetching scan results overview.