WordPress often comes under attack by hackers.

In 2013 a global brute-force attack struck WordPress installations across almost every WP hosting server in existence around the world.

These attacks were caused by botnets (computer networks infected with viruses and programmed to attack other computers with security vulnerabilities).

How To Protect Your WordPress Site From A Brute-Force Attack

What Is A Brute-Force Attack?

A brute-force attack is a technique used to break an encryption or authentication system by trying all possibilities.

(Source: Chinese University Of Hong Kong)

There are many ways hackers try to break into WordPress sites. One of these is by trying to guess the site’s administration login username and password. This is done with software programs that automatically tries to guess hundreds of login combinations in minutes.

If you’re not using strong usernames or unguessable passwords, your website could be an easy target for hackers.

This is called a “brute force” login attack.

Botnets – What Are They?

A botnet is a number of Internet-connected computers communicating with other similar machines in an effort to complete repetitive tasks and objectives. This can be as mundane as keeping control of an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel, or it could be used to send spam email or participate in distributed denial-of-service attacks. The word botnet is a combination of the words robot and network.

(Source: Wikipedia/botnet)

”Botnets” are networks of private computers that have been infected with malicious code, which are then controlled remotely as a group, typically without the unsuspecting computer owners’ knowledge.

Botnets are regularly used to send mass spam emails.

Below is a screenshot taken from an online security monitoring site showing the locations of the command centers of a botnet that has been actively infecting computer networks all around the world since 2009 called “Zeus” …

(ZeuS is a botnet that has been actively infecting computer networks all around the globe since 2009. Image source: SecureList.com)

These ongoing botnet attacks are highly distributed and well organized. Over 90,000 IP addresses were identified by several webhosting companies in the initial attack, when the web was flooded with millions of attempts to force their way into WordPress user administration areas. The brute-force attacks then continued, with over 30,000 WordPress sites and blogs being hacked each day.

News of this large-scale brute-force attack was reported by all of the major webhosting companies, as well as the leading technology publications, such as Forbes, TechNews Daily, PC Magazine, BBC News, Tech Crunch, and even on the official website of the US Department of Homeland Security …

(WordPress powers millions of sites worldwide, which makes it a natural target for attacks by hackers)

Does This Mean We Shouldn’t Use WordPress Anymore?

No. In fact, there are lots of great reasons why you should choose WordPress if you are concerned at all about website security.

To understand what makes WordPress a very secure platform for websites, read this article: Are Open Source Web Platforms Like WordPress Secure?

It’s important to understand that, in the case of April 2013 worldwide brute-force attack described above, was no specific vulnerability in WordPress being exploited (the same script was also targeting sites built using other CMS applications like Joomla).

Mike Little, one of the co-founders of WordPress, said this about the brute-force attacks:

It is a “simple” script that attempts to login using the admin login and a generated password. So if your password is too short or based on dictionary words it will be guessed and then the script can login legitimately and do whatever it wants including installing scripts (as plugins) or editing files. The attack tries to guess your password, if it succeeds, the most secure site in the world is wide open because they have your password.

(MikeLittle.org)

Preventing Your WordPress Blog From Brute Force Attacks – 10 Security Measures

Every blog with a security vulnerability has value to hackers. A compromised site offers malicious users with a resource to launch denial of service attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft.

If a hacker can hack into and gain access and control of your web site, your blog can then be employed to target more highly-valued sites.

Additional undesirable results of being hacked include getting blacklisted by search engines, having stealthy spam links promoting things like casinos, cheap offers on brand names, etc. inserted into your content, redirecting visitors to phishing sites, data exfiltration (stealing information or Personal Identifiable Information from your web applications), and lots of other nasties.

The reality is that hackers are looking for vulnerabilities and trying to hack into your web site at this very moment. Whether they will do this successfully or not, will depend on how difficult you can make it for hackers and botnets to continue trying until they can either discover how to get in, or are forced to give up and go look for a less protected target.

How Much Information Are You Broadcasting To Hackers About Your Site?

Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …

(WP Security Scan Product image source: Hackertarget.com)

You will see that the check returns various results and details about your website …

(WP security scan results. Product image: Hackertarget.com)

It should be obvious after using this tool that if you are able to see all of this information, then so can hackers.

(Screenshot image: BlogDefender website)

The ability to see which version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories on your server are all valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about exploitable holes or weaknesses, especially where site owners haven’t updated their sites.

If your website is powered by WordPress and you’re not precautionary steps to bullet-proof your site, it’s practically guaranteed that, at some point, someone will attempt to hack your installation, because these brute-force attacks are systematically targeting WordPress sites around the world!

Whenever a website or blog gets compromised, webmasters can discover much to their dismay that they have been “locked out” of their own site, or notice that their content has been interfered with or even entirely wiped out. Typically, sites will become infected with malicious scripts or viruses without the owner’s knowledge or awareness.

To help avoid the heartache that comes with having your web site being hacked into, we have listed below 10 simple, yet essential and effective security checks that will help to prevent your WordPress site from being brute-force attacked.

Note: Some of the measures listed below need some technical understanding of how to modify core WordPress or server files. If you are not technical-minded, or don’t want to mess around with file code, then ask your web host or search for a WordPress technical provider in our WordPress Services Directory.

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Security Measure #1 – Get In Touch With Your Web Host

Get in touch with your webhosting service provider and ask them exactly what precautions are in place to help prevent your site from being attacked, and what they do to ensure that your WordPress sites get regularly backed up.

It is important to check that your webhosting company backs up your server files and that, if disaster strikes, you can easily get your files back.

Security Measure #2 – Perform Full WordPress Backups And Keep Your Website Frequently Up-To-Date

You should never rely just on your hosting service for site backups. Instead, learn how to manage your WordPress site or pay someone to get this service done for you and develop a habit of performing a complete WordPress site maintenance routine frequently (e.g. weekly, monthly, etc …)

A complete WordPress maintenance routine ensures that:

• All unnecessary files and data are removed,
• All data and files are free of errors, optimized and backed up,
• All software, plugins and themes are up-to-date,
• etc …

A complete WordPress maintenance routine looks like this …

(Maintaining your WP website regularly backed up and updated is vitally important for WordPress security. Screenshot: WPTrainMe.com)

Again, we cannot stress enough how vitally important it is to maintain your WP site backed up and updated. WP maintenance is not hard or time-consuming, but it must be done to ensure the security of your website. If you don’t want to learn how to do WordPress maintenance yourself, get someone else to do it but make sure it gets done. Backing up your website is the next most important thing you should do after making sure that your heart is still beating!

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Duplicate & Protect Your WordPress Websites And Blogs With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

Security Measure #3 – Do Not Use “Admin” As A Username

the worldwide brute-force botnet attack on WordPress sites was mostly an attempt to compromise site admin panels by exploiting sites using “admin” as the user name.

For reasons of website security, avoid installing a WordPress site with the username “admin”. This is the first thing hackers will test. If your blog’s username is “admin”, you will need to change it immediately.

We have created a step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to change your admin username here: Changing Your WP User Name From Admin To A More Secure Username

Security Measure #4 – Avoid Weak Passwords

A “brute force” attack occurs when malicious software persistently hits a username and password field with different character strings trying to guess the right combination that will unlock your site.

Unless some measure is put into place to stop the brute force attack from happening (see further below for a couple of simple and effective suggestions for doing this), the “bot” will just persist in attacking your site until it eventually breaks into your admin area.

Weak passwords, therefore, are very easy targets for bot attacks. Make sure that you change your password to something that contains at least 8 or 9 characters long, and that includes upper and lowercase letters, combined with “special” characters (e.g. ^, #, &, etc).

You can use a password program like Roboform to help you generate unbreakable passwords …

(Roboform is a password management software that lets you generate really secure passwords)

We have created a detailed step-by-step tutorial for non-technical admin users that shows you how to change your login password here: How To Reset Your Login Password

Security Measure #5 – Secure Your WP Config File

The wp-config.php file contains information about your WP database and is used to define advanced options for WordPress.

(wp-config.php file)

If a hacker breaks into your WordPress website, they will search for the wp-config.php file, because this file contains important information about your site’s database, security keys, etc. Getting access to this information would allow a hacker to change anything in your database, create a user account, upload files and take control of your site.

To protect your WordPress site from being attacked and even being used as part of a bot net, therefore, you must prevent your wp-config.php file from being easily accessed. This requires knowing how to edit database information, move files around in your server and changing access permissions.

Security Measure #6 – Rename Or Delete Unnecessary Site Installation Files

Rename or delete your install.php, upgrade.php and readme.html files.

You can remove these files after installation. If you don’t want to remove these files, just rename them.

Security Measure #7 – Keep Your WordPress Blog, Plugins & Themes Up-To-Date

Hackers search for vulnerabilities they can exploit in previous WordPress versions, including out-of-date versions of themes and plugins.

Ensure that all of your application files, themes, plugins, etc. are always up to date.

Security Measure #8 – Disable The WordPress Theme Editor

WordPress installations come with a built-in editor feature that allows site administrators to edit plugin and theme files from the dashboard area.

You can access the WordPress Theme Editor by selecting Appearance > Editor from the dashboard menu …

(The WordPress theme editor can be accessed via the admin menu)

This means that anyone logging into your blog’s admin area can view and change your WordPress files, or cause havoc on your site.

If you want to prevent unauthorized people from being able to access your WordPress Theme editor, you will need to disable it. This can be done by adding code to your wp-config.php file.

Security Measure #9 – Protect The WordPress Uploads Folder

The WordPress “uploads” directory stores all the media that gets uploaded to your WordPress site.

By default, this folder is visible to online users. All a person needs to do to see all of the contents stored in your “uploads” folder is navigate to your directory using a web browser …

(WordPress uploads directory)

If any directories in your website have weaknesses or vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers, this can seriously threaten the security of your site.

Protecting your directories will prevent unauthorized people from viewing your ‘uploads’ folder and other important directories. This can be done using plugins, setting file permissions, uploading a blank index.php file (this is literally an empty file named “index.php”) to your uploads directory, and so on. Again, it’s best to seek professional help if you are unsure about what to do.

Security Measure #10 – Install WordPress Security Plugins

A number of great security plugins for WordPress are available that specifically address most common security issues faced by WordPress website owners, such as preventing hackers from accessing your site, protecting your files from malicious scripts, preventing injections of code into files, etc.

Most WordPress plugins address some but not all areas of WordPress security. One WordPress security plugin that does a comprehensive job of scanning, fixing and preventing potential issues that could lead to hackers accessing your website files and damaging your site is SecureScanPro.

(SecureScanPro – security software solution for WordPress)

SecureScanPro is easy to install and easy to use, and fixes most of the security issues that WordPress users need to address.

Another plugin you may want to look at using is BlogDefender.

Blog Defender

(Blog Defender)

This product is a suite of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.

BlogDefender scans you WordPress site for security holes …

And lets you fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …

If you don’t want to invest in a premium security plugin like SecureScanPro or BlogDefender, then use various free plugins, such as Limit Login Attempts …

WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like keeping your WordPress core files, WP plugins and themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to malicious by hackers and bots.

Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you simply cannot afford to ignore.

As one last reminder of the importance of keeping your websites protected, below is the advice given by an expert on web security to all WordPress users after the global brute-force attacks by botnets on WordPress in 2013 …

Owners of websites based on WordPress CMS must improve at least basic security settings and implement best practices such as the use of robust passwords and the accurate management of “admin” accounts.

Pierluigi Paganini, Chief Information Security Officer, Security Affairs

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As you can see, WordPress security is very important if you run a WordPress site. Hopefully, this article has given you the initial guidelines and help you need to keep your WordPress site protected from brute force attacks. If you need any further help or assistance with WordPress security, please seek help from a professional WordPress security specialist, or search for a WordPress technical provider in our WordPress Services Directory.

Also, do yourself a favor and subscribe to WPCompendium.org to be notified when we publish new tips on WordPress security and tutorials about WordPress security plugins.

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