Every WordPress site owner has seen the offer: the premium theme or plugin you want, free, from a download site instead of the developer. It installs fine, it looks fine, and it costs nothing — which is exactly why it is worth a second look before you trust it with your site.
Those "nulled" copies are rarely just the original code with the price removed. The usual way they pay for themselves is by adding something to the code: a hidden admin account, a backdoor that lets someone else log in later, or links and spam pages injected where your visitors will not notice them at first. You will not see any of it in the theme settings. The site works normally while someone else holds a key to it — and because the copy never gets official updates, the known holes in it stay open even after the developer has fixed them.
So treat free copies of paid code the way you would treat any other download from a stranger: do not install it. Buy the theme or plugin from the developer or a marketplace you trust, or pick a genuinely free alternative from the WordPress directory instead. If a site already has a nulled theme or plugin on it, remove it, change the admin passwords, and check for extra admin accounts you did not create.
And keep watching what your site actually runs. A free scan at https://vulnerabilitytools.com/ shows you what your site is exposed to — then remove the code you cannot trust, and update what is left.
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