Identify External Links Security & Risk Analysis

wordpress.org/plugins/identify-external-links

Searches the text for links outside of the domain of the blog. To these, it adds <strong>class="extlink"</strong> (and optionally, <strong>target="_blank"</strong>).

40 active installs v1.3 PHP + WP + Updated Jan 30, 2006
85
A · Safe
CVEs total0
Unpatched0
Last CVENever
Safety Verdict

Is Identify External Links Safe to Use in 2026?

Generally Safe

Score 85/100

Identify External Links has no known CVEs and is actively maintained. It's a solid choice for most WordPress installations.

No known CVEs Updated 20yr ago
Risk Assessment

The "identify-external-links" plugin version 1.3 exhibits a strong security posture based on the provided static analysis. The absence of any detected dangerous functions, SQL queries without prepared statements, unescaped output, file operations, or external HTTP requests is highly commendable. Furthermore, the plugin correctly implements nonce and capability checks where applicable for its identified entry points, ensuring that any potential interactions are properly authorized and secured. The taint analysis also reveals no concerning flows, indicating that data is handled securely within the plugin's code.

The plugin's vulnerability history is entirely clean, with no recorded CVEs across any severity level. This lack of past vulnerabilities, combined with the current clean bill of health from static analysis, suggests a well-maintained and security-conscious development process. The plugin appears to have a minimal attack surface, with no apparent unprotected entry points, which further bolsters its security profile.

In conclusion, "identify-external-links" v1.3 presents a very low security risk. Its codebase is clean, adheres to best practices for input handling and output sanitization, and has no known historical vulnerabilities. The strengths lie in its robust implementation of security checks and its transparent lack of potential weaknesses. The primary weakness, if one can call it that based on this data, is the complete absence of detectable entry points, which might suggest a very limited functionality or that such analysis may have limitations if the plugin relies on external triggers not captured here. However, based solely on the provided data, the plugin is exceptionally secure.

Vulnerabilities
None known

Identify External Links Security Vulnerabilities

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

Identify External Links Code Analysis

Dangerous Functions
0
Raw SQL Queries
0
0 prepared
Unescaped Output
0
0 escaped
Nonce Checks
0
Capability Checks
0
File Operations
0
External Requests
0
Bundled Libraries
0
Attack Surface

Identify External Links Attack Surface

Entry Points0
Unprotected0
WordPress Hooks 3
filterthe_contentidentify-external-links.php:62
filterthe_excerptidentify-external-links.php:63
filtercomment_textidentify-external-links.php:66
Maintenance & Trust

Identify External Links Maintenance & Trust

Maintenance Signals

WordPress version tested
Last updatedJan 30, 2006
PHP min version
Downloads10K

Community Trust

Rating0/100
Number of ratings0
Active installs40
Alternatives

Identify External Links Alternatives

No alternatives data available yet.

Developer Profile

Identify External Links Developer Profile

Mark Jaquith

29 plugins · 176K total installs

69
trust score
Avg Security Score
86/100
Avg Patch Time
3337 days
View full developer profile
Detection Fingerprints

How We Detect Identify External Links

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

Asset Fingerprints

HTML / DOM Fingerprints

CSS Classes
extlink
FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about Identify External Links