1. WordPress: A Massive Attack Surface Hiding in Plain Sight
By the numbers
- 7,966 new WordPress-ecosystem CVEs were logged in 2024; 96 % came from third-party plugins and themes, not the core software. (8000 New WordPress Vulnerabilities Reported in 2024)
- Only 7 core bugs were reported the same year—showing that the real danger lives in the bolt-on ecosystem.
Recent high-impact examples
Why it’s a deal-breaker for banks
- Patch velocity: When 100–200 new plugin CVEs land each week, staying current requires near-real-time DevSecOps—not a part-time webmaster.
- Supply-chain exposure: A single compromised plugin update propagates malware to every bank site that auto-updates.
- Brand-damage potential: Even a superficial defacement can ignite depositor rumors and trigger examiner inquiries.
2. Drupal: Security-First Reputation, but Still a Magnet for RCE & XSS
Fresh advisories
In March 2025, Drupal issued SA-CORE-2025-001 – 003, including a critical cross-site-scripting flaw that affects every supported branch (10 & 11). Sites were urged to patch immediately. (Releases for Drupal core | Drupal.org)
Legacy ghosts still haunt
Hidden costs for banks
- Complex updates: Major-version jumps (e.g., 9 → 10 → 11) often require rebuilds of custom themes and modules—burning budget that could be spent on new digital features.
- Module hygiene: Like WordPress plugins, contributed Drupal modules introduce unvetted code paths that seldom undergo formal penetration testing.
- Regulatory optics: Examiners view any RCE history as a red flag, even if the bank patched quickly.
3. Joomla: SQL Injection and MFA Bypass in the Same Quarter
Why banks should worry
- Lower market share ≠ lower risk: Fewer eyes on the codebase often means longer dwell-time before vulnerabilities surface.
- Core-level flaws like MFA bypass show that even a perfectly patched extension set can leave a bank exposed.
- Exploit commoditization: Proof-of-concept scripts for new Joomla CVEs appear on GitHub within days, giving threat actors turnkey weapons.
Key Takeaways for Financial Institutions
- Regulated uptime & data-integrity standards are incompatible with the break-fix culture of plugin-driven CMS ecosystems.
- Third-party risk management becomes a nightmare when hundreds of volunteer developers control the patch pipeline.
- Cyber-insurance underwriters now add surcharges—or outright exclusions—for policyholders running un-hardened open-source CMSs.
Bottom line: The cumulative evidence shows that WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla introduce uncontrolled variables a bank simply cannot offset with after-the-fact monitoring or WAF rules. A closed-source, compliance-engineered platform (or a static-site architecture served from a locked-down environment) remains the least-risk path for institutions that answer to OCC, FDIC, or Fed examiners.
Next Steps
Run a CMS risk workshop with your security, marketing, and compliance teams. Map every plugin, module, or extension your site depends on, then compare patch cadences to the CVEs above. If the numbers make you uneasy, schedule a demo with findex.
.svg)
.svg)
