Friendly Captcha for WordPress

Friendly Captcha is a privacy-first anti-bot solution that protects WordPress website forms from spam and abuse.

v1.17.2Friendly CaptchaUpdated Added 9k+ installs78% rating100% support resolved
35
Score
192
Errors
62
Warnings
+0
Change

Category Scores

Security0
Repo88
Performance100
Maintainability58

Issues to Review

Prioritized issue groups from the latest Plugin Check scan

254 findings

Security

104

7 issue groups

Maintainability

77

10 issue groups

I18n

70

5 issue groups

Repo Compliance

3

3 issue groups

ERRORSecurityOutput is not escapedAll output should be run through an escaping function (see the Security sections in the WordPress Developer Handbooks), found '"<option value=\"{$code}\" {$selected}>{$name}</option>"'.62
Category
Security
Occurrences
62
Severity
error

Sample message

All output should be run through an escaping function (see the Security sections in the WordPress Developer Handbooks), found '"<option value=\"{$code}\" {$selected}>{$name}</option>"'.

ERRORI18nText Domain MismatchMismatched text domain. Expected 'friendly-captcha' but got "frcaptcha".59
Category
I18n
Occurrences
59
Severity
error

Sample message

Mismatched text domain. Expected 'friendly-captcha' but got "frcaptcha".

ERRORMaintainabilityMissing direct file access protectionPHP file should prevent direct access. Add a check like: if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) exit;44
Category
Maintainability
Occurrences
44
Severity
error

Sample message

PHP file should prevent direct access. Add a check like: if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) exit;

WARNINGSecurityMissing nonce verificationProcessing form data without nonce verification.19
Category
Security
Occurrences
19
Severity
warning

Sample message

Processing form data without nonce verification.

ERRORSecuritySetting is missing a sanitization callbackSanitization missing for register_setting().10
Category
Security
Occurrences
10
Severity
error

Sample message

Sanitization missing for register_setting().

WARNINGMaintainabilityNon-prefixed global variableGlobal variables defined by a theme/plugin should start with the theme/plugin prefix. Found: &quot;$awsm_response&quot;.9
Category
Maintainability
Occurrences
9
Severity
warning

Sample message

Global variables defined by a theme/plugin should start with the theme/plugin prefix. Found: &quot;$awsm_response&quot;.

ERRORMaintainabilityNon Enqueued ScriptScripts must be registered/enqueued via wp_enqueue_script()5
Category
Maintainability
Occurrences
5
Severity
error

Sample message

Scripts must be registered/enqueued via wp_enqueue_script()

WARNINGMaintainabilityNon-prefixed classClasses declared by a theme/plugin should start with the theme/plugin prefix. Found: &quot;Elementor_Form_Friendlycaptcha_Field&quot;.4
Category
Maintainability
Occurrences
4
Severity
warning

Sample message

Classes declared by a theme/plugin should start with the theme/plugin prefix. Found: &quot;Elementor_Form_Friendlycaptcha_Field&quot;.

WARNINGMaintainabilityNon-prefixed constantGlobal constants defined by a theme/plugin should start with the theme/plugin prefix. Found: &quot;FRIENDLY_CAPTCHA_FRIENDLY_CAPTCHA_SDK_VERSION&quot;.4
Category
Maintainability
Occurrences
4
Severity
warning

Sample message

Global constants defined by a theme/plugin should start with the theme/plugin prefix. Found: &quot;FRIENDLY_CAPTCHA_FRIENDLY_CAPTCHA_SDK_VERSION&quot;.

WARNINGSecurityNonce verification recommendedProcessing form data without nonce verification.4
Category
Security
Occurrences
4
Severity
warning

Sample message

Processing form data without nonce verification.

Show 15 more
WARNINGSecurityRequest data is not unslashed4
Category
Security
Occurrences
4
Severity
warning

Sample message

$_POST[$fieldName] not unslashed before sanitization. Use wp_unslash() or similar

ERRORI18nMissing Arg Domain4
Category
I18n
Occurrences
4
Severity
error

Sample message

Missing $domain parameter in function call to __().

ERRORI18nNon Singular String Literal Text4
Category
I18n
Occurrences
4
Severity
error

Sample message

The $text parameter must be a single text string literal. Found: $error_message

WARNINGMaintainabilityNon-prefixed function3
Category
Maintainability
Occurrences
3
Severity
warning

Sample message

Functions declared in the global namespace by a theme/plugin should start with the theme/plugin prefix. Found: &quot;add_friendly_captcha&quot;.

WARNINGMaintainabilityerror log trigger error3
Category
Maintainability
Occurrences
3
Severity
warning

Sample message

trigger_error() found. Debug code should not normally be used in production.

WARNINGSecurityInput is not sanitized3
Category
Security
Occurrences
3
Severity
warning

Sample message

Detected usage of a non-sanitized input variable: $_POST[$fieldName]

WARNINGMaintainabilityNo PHP code found2
Category
Maintainability
Occurrences
2
Severity
warning

Sample message

No PHP code was found in this file and short open tags are not allowed by this install of PHP. This file may be using short open tags but PHP does not allow them.

WARNINGSecurityInput is not validated2
Category
Security
Occurrences
2
Severity
warning

Sample message

Detected usage of a possibly undefined superglobal array index: $_POST[&#039;formData&#039;]. Check that the array index exists before using it.

ERRORI18nMissing Translators Comment2
Category
I18n
Occurrences
2
Severity
error

Sample message

A function call to __() with texts containing placeholders was found, but was not accompanied by a "translators:" comment on the line above to clarify the meaning of the placeholders.

WARNINGMaintainabilitytrademarked term2
Category
Maintainability
Occurrences
2
Severity
warning

Sample message

The plugin name includes a restricted term. Your chosen plugin name - "Friendly Captcha for WordPress" - contains the restricted term "wordpress" which cannot be used at all in your plugin name.

ERRORRepo Complianceoutdated tested upto header1
Category
Repo Compliance
Occurrences
1
Severity
error

Sample message

Tested up to: 6.8 < 7.0. The "Tested up to" value in your plugin is not set to the current version of WordPress. This means your plugin will not show up in searches, as we require plugins to be compatible and documented as tested up to the most recent version of WordPress.

WARNINGRepo Complianceplugin header nonexistent domain path1
Category
Repo Compliance
Occurrences
1
Severity
warning

Sample message

The "Domain Path" header in the plugin file must point to an existing folder. Found: "languages"

WARNINGRepo Compliancereadme parser warnings too many tags1
Category
Repo Compliance
Occurrences
1
Severity
warning

Sample message

One or more tags were ignored. Please limit your plugin to 5 tags.

WARNINGI18ntextdomain mismatch1
Category
I18n
Occurrences
1
Severity
warning

Sample message

The "Text Domain" header in the plugin file does not match the slug. Found "frcaptcha", expected "friendly-captcha".

ERRORMaintainabilitywp function not compatible with requires wp1
Category
Maintainability
Occurrences
1
Severity
error

Sample message

Function "wp_date()" requires WordPress 5.3.0, but your plugin minimum supported version is WordPress 5.0.0.

External Connections

Potential connections found in static code analysis.

21 domains

Outbound calls

57

External assets

1

Incoming endpoints

0

Notable Domains

Platform / Reference Domains

wordpress.org11 · platform/reference
github.com5 · platform/reference
de.wordpress.org3 · platform/reference
w3.org2 · platform/reference
gnu.org1 · platform/reference

External Asset Domains

cdn.jsdelivr.net3 · asset + outbound

Incoming Endpoints

No public endpoints detected.

Score History

2 score snapshots

+0
1007550250Jun 20, 2026, 10:46 PM UTC Score 35/100 Plugin v1.17.0 Plugin Check 2.0.0 192 errors, 62 warningsJun 23, 2026, 01:39 PM UTC Score 35/100 Plugin v1.17.2 Plugin Check 2.0.0 192 errors, 62 warningsJun 20, 2026Jun 23, 2026

v1.17.2

35

Latest

Findings
254
Errors
192
Warnings
62
Check
2.0.0

v1.17.0

35

Score

Findings
254
Errors
192
Warnings
62
Check
2.0.0

Relationship Map

Author, categories, issues, domains, and nearby plugins.

37 nodes

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