Publish a security.txt file on WordPress

Why it matters

A security.txt file tells researchers who to contact when they find a security problem on your site, so a report reaches you instead of being posted publicly or lost. It is a small plain text file defined in RFC 9116.

The fix

1. Option 1, a plugin. In Plugins, Add New, search for security.txt and install a maintained generator plugin that publishes the file at /.well-known/security.txt. Fill in Contact and Expires.
2. Option 2, upload a file. Connect by SFTP or your host's file manager and create a .well-known folder in the web root (the folder that contains wp-content for a standard install). Upload security.txt into it with the content shown in the generic tab.
3. A real file in .well-known is served by the web server directly. If it returns a 404 or a block page, a security plugin or a server rule is hiding dot folders; allow /.well-known/ there.

Contact: mailto:security@example.com
Expires: 2026-12-31T23:59:59Z
Preferred-Languages: en
Canonical: https://example.com/.well-known/security.txt

The examples use example.com. Replace it with your own domain.

Read the documentation ↗(opens in a new tab)

Related

• Reported by the security.txt check
• Serve security.txt from /.well-known/
• Serve security.txt over https
• Serve security.txt as text/plain with utf-8
• Add a Contact line to security.txt
• Fix the Contact value in security.txt
• Add an Expires line to security.txt
• Use an RFC 3339 date in the Expires line
• Renew the expired security.txt
• Renew security.txt before it expires
• Shorten the security.txt Expires date
• Fix repeated or insecure fields in security.txt
• Make the Canonical line match where the file is served