
AdRotate Banner Manager Security & Risk Analysis
wordpress.org/plugins/adrotateEasily manage, and schedule ads on your WordPress site with AdRotate. Support for Google AdSense, Amazon, and custom banners. Start monetizing today!
Is AdRotate Banner Manager Safe to Use in 2026?
Generally Safe
Score 88/100AdRotate Banner Manager has a strong security track record. Known vulnerabilities have been patched promptly. It's a solid choice for most WordPress installations.
The AdRotate plugin v5.17.4 exhibits a mixed security posture. While it incorporates a reasonable number of capability checks and nonce checks, a significant concern arises from the attack surface analysis, which reveals 4 out of 5 entry points lack proper authentication. This, coupled with taint analysis indicating 2 high-severity flows with unsanitized paths, presents a substantial risk of unauthorized access and potential exploitation. The presence of the `unserialize` function is also a point of concern, as it can lead to object injection vulnerabilities if not handled with extreme care.
The plugin's vulnerability history is particularly troubling, with 9 known CVEs, including 2 critical and 5 high-severity ones. The common vulnerability types like Unrestricted Upload, CSRF, XSS, and SQL Injection suggest a recurring pattern of insecure input handling and authorization bypasses. The fact that the last vulnerability was recent (August 19, 2024) indicates ongoing security issues that have not yet been comprehensively addressed. While there are currently no unpatched CVEs, the historical data and the code analysis findings paint a picture of a plugin that requires diligent monitoring and prompt updates.
In conclusion, AdRotate v5.17.4 has several critical weaknesses that outweigh its strengths. The large number of unprotected entry points and the historical trend of severe vulnerabilities are significant red flags. While some security measures are present, they are insufficient to mitigate the risks presented by the identified code signals and taint flows. Users should proceed with caution and prioritize keeping the plugin updated to the latest available secure version.
Key Concerns
- 4 unprotected AJAX handlers
- 2 high severity unsanitized taint flows
- Use of unserialize function
- Low percentage of prepared statements
- Low percentage of properly escaped output
- 9 total known CVEs
- 2 critical historical CVEs
- 5 high historical CVEs
- Common vulnerability types (SQLi, XSS, CSRF)
AdRotate Banner Manager Security Vulnerabilities
CVEs by Year
Severity Breakdown
9 total CVEs
AdRotate – Ad manager & AdSense Ads <= 5.13.2 - Authenticated (Admin+) Double Extension Arbitrary File Upload
AdRotate Banner Manager <= 5.9 - Cross-Site Request Forgery
AdRotate – Ad manager & AdSense Ads <= 5.8.22 - Authenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Group Names
AdRotate – Ad manager & AdSense Ads <= 5.8.22 - Authenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via Advert Names
AdRotate – Ad manager & AdSense Ads <= 5.8.17 - Admin+ SQL Injection
AdRotate < 5.8.4 - Authenticated SQL Injection
AdRotate – Ad manager & AdSense Ads <= 5.2 - Authenticated SQL Injection
AdRotate – Ad manager & AdSense Ads 3.9 - 3.9.4 - SQL Injection
AdRotate – Ad manager & AdSense Ads < 3.6.8 - SQL Injection
AdRotate Banner Manager Release Timeline
AdRotate Banner Manager Code Analysis
Dangerous Functions Found
SQL Query Safety
Output Escaping
Data Flow Analysis
AdRotate Banner Manager Attack Surface
AJAX Handlers 4
Shortcodes 1
WordPress Hooks 21
Scheduled Events 2
Maintenance & Trust
AdRotate Banner Manager Maintenance & Trust
Maintenance Signals
Community Trust
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AdRotate Banner Manager Developer Profile
6 plugins · 23K total installs
How We Detect AdRotate Banner Manager
Patterns used to identify this plugin on WordPress sites during automated security audits and web crawling.
Asset Fingerprints
/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/css/admin.css/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/css/frontend.css/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/js/adrotate.js/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/js/jquery.cycle.all.js/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/js/jquery.sticky-kit.min.js/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/js/jquery.knob.min.js/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/js/jquery.flot.min.js/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/js/jquery.flot.pie.min.js+1 more/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/js/adrotate.js/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/js/jquery.cycle.all.js/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/js/jquery.sticky-kit.min.js/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/js/jquery.knob.min.js/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/js/jquery.flot.min.js/wp-content/plugins/adrotate/js/jquery.flot.pie.min.js+1 moreadrotate/css/admin.css?ver=adrotate/css/frontend.css?ver=adrotate/js/adrotate.js?ver=adrotate/js/jquery.cycle.all.js?ver=adrotate/js/jquery.sticky-kit.min.js?ver=adrotate/js/jquery.knob.min.js?ver=adrotate/js/jquery.flot.min.js?ver=adrotate/js/jquery.flot.pie.min.js?ver=adrotate/js/adrotate_feedback.js?ver=HTML / DOM Fingerprints
adrotate-widgetadrotate-adadrotate-slideradrotate-banneradrotate-groupadrotate-stats-overviewadrotate-graphadrotate-advert+2 more<!-- AdRotate - START --><!-- AdRotate - END --><!-- AdRotate Ad ID:<!-- AdRotate Group ID:+3 moredata-adrotate-iddata-adrotate-groupdata-adrotate-scheduledata-adrotate-mediadata-adrotate-settingsadrotateadrotate_feedbackadrotate_charts[adrotate[adrotate group=[adrotate banner=[adrotate schedule=