About this plugin
Nova Scan Lite is a free, lightweight malware scanner for WordPress. It checks your site for common PHP threats and verifies WordPress core file integrity — all running locally on your server during an admin session.
What it does
- Scans PHP files for backdoors, webshells, and RCE patterns
- Verifies WordPress core files against official checksums
- Flags modified or unexpected files in wp-admin/ and wp-includes/
- One-click quarantine to disable suspicious files without deleting
- Chunked scanning (handles thousands of files without timeouts)
- Full scan history with severity breakdowns
What it detects
- Backdoors & webshells (C99, r57, FilesMan, custom shells)
- Remote code execution (eval + base64, preg_replace /e, create_function)
- System command execution (system, shell_exec, passthru with user input)
- Credential harvesting and wp_users dumps
- File system abuse (remote file writes, 0777 chmod, wget/curl droppers)
- Obfuscation patterns (long base64, chr/ord chains, hex encoding)
- Modified WordPress core files
Privacy
Nova Scan Lite does not transmit any of your site’s content, file data, or user information anywhere. Scans run locally on your server. org checksums API for core file integrity verification (see the “External services” section below).
External services
org.
org Core Checksums API
- What it is and what it is used for: The official WordPress.org API that returns known-good MD5 checksums for every file in a given WordPress core release. Nova Scan Lite uses it to verify that the installed WordPress core files have not been modified by malware or unauthorized users.
- What data is sent and when: The request is triggered only when the site administrator clicks the “Check Core Files” button in the admin. The request sends only the currently-installed WordPress version string and the site’s locale (for example version=7.0&locale=en_US ). No site URL, no user data, no file contents, and no database information is transmitted.
- Terms and privacy: The API is operated by the WordPress Foundation. Its use is governed by the WordPress.org privacy policy (https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/).
- Endpoint: https://api.wordpress.org/core/checksums/1.0/
No other outbound requests are made. No tracking, no telemetry, no phone home, no remote assets loaded.
Upgrade to Nova Scan Pro
Nova Scan Pro is also free (included with a free Nova Heaven account). It replaces Lite and adds:
- Web Application Firewall with brute-force and XML-RPC protection
- Database payload scanner
- Vulnerability (CVE) intelligence and virtual patching
- Repository integrity check, file modification monitoring, tamper-proof canaries
- Mass-reinfection velocity alerts, cron job scanner, rogue admin detection
- Obfuscation / encoding detection and behavioral pattern analysis
- Security score, threat dashboard, one-click hardening, security headers
- Allowlist management, scheduled scans, email alerts
- Frontend Shield monitor (cross-domain, catches skimmers and injected scripts)
- 12-provider cascading email engine so alerts never get stuck on one quota
- Signed automatic updates
- Multilingual (21 languages)
io/novascan.