Software to run on server checking outdated wordpress installations

Question

Is there any software that I can run on either a Linux or a Windows server to check for domains that have out dated WordPress installations. I have seen a rise in hacked WordPress sites and in all the cases it was because the clients had not installed updates.

Answer 1

If you can access the files from the server just include wp-includes/version.php from each installation. That file is completely stand-alone, it just defines five variables:

/**
 * The WordPress version string
 *
 * @global string $wp_version
 */
$wp_version = '3.5.1';

/**
 * Holds the WordPress DB revision, increments when changes are made to the WordPress DB schema.
 *
 * @global int $wp_db_version
 */
$wp_db_version = 22441;

/**
 * Holds the TinyMCE version
 *
 * @global string $tinymce_version
 */
$tinymce_version = '358-23224';

/**
 * Holds the required PHP version
 *
 * @global string $required_php_version
 */
$required_php_version = '5.2.4';

/**
 * Holds the required MySQL version
 *
 * @global string $required_mysql_version
 */
$required_mysql_version = '5.0';

A simple version_compare() will do the trick:

if ( '-1' == version_compare( $wp_version, '3.5.1' ) )
    return 'outdated';

Answer 2

A simple solution would be to just use wget and grep the meta generator for example:

//need xml2 installed
wget -q -O - http://www.example.com | xml2 | grep meta | awk -F/ '{print $NF}' 

The problem is that a lot of people remove the meta generator tag, so then I suggest you have a look at this answer by Otto (the file he links ) on where else to check for version info, Remotely identify the version of a WordPress installation?

There are also WordPress scanners that do version fingerprinting, namely WPScan, you can Google it.

If you have access to server files then toscho's answer is the best.