Canonical Link Security & Risk Analysis

wordpress.org/plugins/canonical-link

Adds the canonical link to your site (https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_link_element). Activate and then set your permalinks to "Post name&quo …

3K active installs v1.6 PHP + WP 5.0+ Updated Jan 21, 2026
canonicalcanonicalizationclean-urlseoseo-friendly
100
A · Safe
CVEs total0
Unpatched0
Last CVENever
Safety Verdict

Is Canonical Link Safe to Use in 2026?

Generally Safe

Score 100/100

Canonical Link has no known CVEs and is actively maintained. It's a solid choice for most WordPress installations.

No known CVEs Updated 2mo ago
Risk Assessment

The 'canonical-link' plugin v1.6 exhibits a generally strong security posture, with no known vulnerabilities in its history and a good adherence to secure coding practices. The static analysis reveals a remarkably small attack surface with zero entry points identified. Crucially, all SQL queries are properly prepared, and there are no file operations or external HTTP requests, minimizing common attack vectors. The presence of nonce and capability checks also indicates an effort to implement basic authentication and authorization. However, a minor concern arises from the taint analysis, which shows one flow with an unsanitized path. While no critical or high severity issues were flagged, this single unsanitized path warrants attention as it could potentially lead to unintended behavior if exploited under specific circumstances. Overall, the plugin is well-secured, but this one identified flow represents a small area for potential improvement.

Key Concerns

  • Flow with unsanitized path found
Vulnerabilities
None known

Canonical Link Security Vulnerabilities

No known vulnerabilities — this is a good sign.
Code Analysis
Analyzed Mar 16, 2026

Canonical Link Code Analysis

Dangerous Functions
0
Raw SQL Queries
0
0 prepared
Unescaped Output
2
5 escaped
Nonce Checks
1
Capability Checks
1
File Operations
0
External Requests
0
Bundled Libraries
0

Output Escaping

71% escaped7 total outputs
Data Flows
1 unsanitized

Data Flow Analysis

2 flows1 with unsanitized paths
canonicalink (canonical-link.php:48)
Source (user input) Sink (dangerous op) Sanitizer Transform Unsanitized Sanitized
Attack Surface

Canonical Link Attack Surface

Entry Points0
Unprotected0
WordPress Hooks 3
actionadd_meta_boxescanonical-link.php:21
actionsave_postcanonical-link.php:36
actionwp_headcanonical-link.php:47
Maintenance & Trust

Canonical Link Maintenance & Trust

Maintenance Signals

WordPress version tested6.8.5
Last updatedJan 21, 2026
PHP min version
Downloads17K

Community Trust

Rating100/100
Number of ratings1
Active installs3K
Developer Profile

Canonical Link Developer Profile

Web Guy

30 plugins · 52K total installs

79
trust score
Avg Security Score
100/100
Avg Patch Time
629 days
View full developer profile
Detection Fingerprints

How We Detect Canonical Link

Patterns used to identify this plugin on WordPress sites during automated security audits and web crawling.

Asset Fingerprints

HTML / DOM Fingerprints

Data Attributes
canonicalink_custom
FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about Canonical Link