WordPress powers millions of sites around the world, making it an obvious target for attempted attacks by malicious users.

In April 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to large-scale brute force attacks.

These attacks were caused by botnets (computers infected with viruses and programmed to attack other vulnerable computers).

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

Brute Force Attacks – Definition

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)

One of the many ways hackers use to try and break into WordPress sites is by trying to guess the site’s administration login username and password. This is done using software tools that automatically tries to guess hundreds of possible login combinations in minutes.

If you’re using obvious usernames and weak passwords that are easy to guess, your website can be easily hacked by repeated attempts to guess your site’s login details.

This is called a “brute force” login attack.

Botnets

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)

”Botnets” are networks of computers that have been compromised and infected with malicious code, which can then be controlled remotely as a group, often without the computer owners’ knowledge or awareness.

Botnets are typically used to send out mass spam emails from the infected computers of compromised user accounts.

The screenshot below was taken from a site that monitors online security 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. Source: SecureList.com)

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

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

(WordPress is frequently the target of large-scale malicious attempts by hackers, due to its popularity)

Does This Mean We Should Stop Using WordPress?

No. In fact, there are many very good reasons why you should continue using WordPress if you are concerned about the security of your online business.

To understand what makes WordPress a very secure platform for websites, read this article: Is WordPress Secure? What Every Business Owner Needs To Know About WordPress

It’s important to understand that, in the case of the large-scale brute force botnet attack described above, there was no WordPress vulnerability being exploited (the same script was also targeting sites built using other platforms like Joomla).

Mike Little, one of the co-founders of WordPress, made this comment 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)

Protecting Your WordPress Site From Being Brute Force Attacked – Ten Security Points

You may think that your website has no value to hackers, but the reality is that to a hacker, all websites provide an opportunity to gain some benefit at your expense.

If hackers can find a web security flaw that allows them to take over and control your web site, that website can then be employed to attack other highly-valued web sites.

Additional undesirable consequences of having your website hacked include being blacklisted by Google, having spammy links advertising things like online meds, cheap offers on brand names, etc. in your content and page title and descriptions, redirecting visitors to phishing sites, drive-by downloads (adding malware on your visitors’ computers), and many other nasty things.

The reality is that brute-force software bots are most likely looking for security exploits and trying to break into your blog right now. Whether they can get in successfully depends on how hard or easy you will make it for hackers to continue trying until they either can work out how to get access, or give up and go look for a more vulnerable target.

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

Do you own a WordPress site? If so, visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security scan …

(WP Security Check Product image: Hackertarget.com)

You will see that the scan will yield a number of results and information about your site …

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

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

(Source: BlogDefender site)

Being able to see which version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed on your site, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories are all valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about any potential holes or weaknesses, especially in older versions.

If your website is powered by WordPress and you are not preventive steps to bolster the security of your site, then we can practically guarantee that, at some point, someone will attempt to hack your site, because these attacks are systematically targeting WordPress sites worldwide!

Typically, when a website or blog is compromised, website owners will find themselves completely “locked out” of their own site, or notice that their content has been altered or that everything has been entirely wiped out. Often, most sites will become infected with malicious scripts or viruses without the owner even being aware that a security breach has happened.

To help avoid the heartache and aggravation of having your website or blog being hacked into, below are ten essential and effective security checks that will help to protect your WordPress site from brute force botnet attacks.

Note: A few of the recommended measures below need some technical skills to modify core WordPress and server files. If you are not technical-minded, or don’t want to mess around with code on your site, then ask your web host or a professional WordPress service provider for assistance.

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Security Measure #1 – Contact Your Web Host

Get in touch with your webhosting company and ask them what precautions they have put into place to help prevent your site from being attacked, and what is done to ensure that your server files and data get backed up.

Make sure that your hosting service is regularly backing up your server files and that, if anything should happen, you can quickly and easily get back your site.

Security Measure #2 – Back Up Your WordPress Data And Files And Keep Your Website Or Blog Frequently Maintained

You should never rely on your hosting company for site backups. Instead, learn how to maintain and manage your WordPress site or pay someone to get this service done for you and develop a habit of performing a full WordPress site maintenance routine on a frequent basis (e.g. daily, weekly, fortnightly, etc …)

A complete WordPress maintenance routine ensures that:

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

A proper WP site maintenance routine looks like this …

(Maintaining your WordPress website frequently backed up and updated is vitally important for WordPress security. Image: WPTrainMe.com)

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

If you don’t want to back up your data manually, there are many free and paid WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Back Up, Duplicate And Protect Your WordPress Web Sites With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

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

The brute-force attack on WordPress is mostly an attempt to compromise website admin panels by exploiting installations using “admin” as the user name.

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

For a simple step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to change your admin username, go here: Changing Your WordPress Username From Admin To A Different User Name

Security Measure #4 – Change Your Password

A “brute force” attack occurs when a malicious script persistently hits a username and password field with different strings of characters in an attempt to guess the right combination that will give the hacker entry to your website.

Unless some measure is put into place to block the brute force attack from happening (see further below for a couple of simple and effective suggestions for doing this), the “bot” will just keep attacking your site until it eventually works out the combination.

Passwords that are easy to guess, therefore, make very easy targets for attacks. Make sure that you change your password to a string containing at least eight characters long, with upper and lowercase letters, and “special” characters (e.g. %, $, *, etc).

You can use a password program like Roboform to generate difficult passwords …

(Roboform is a password management tool that lets you create different secure login passwords)

For a simple tutorial that shows you how to change your password, go here: How To Change A Password In WordPress

Security Measure #5 – Protect Your WP Config File

The wp-config.php file allows WordPress to communicate with the database to store and retrieve data and is used to define advanced WordPress options.

(wp-config.php)

If a hacker breaks into your WordPress website, they will typically look 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 someone to change anything in your database, create a user account, upload files and take control of your site.

To protect your WordPress site from attacks and even being used as part of a bot net, therefore, you must prevent people from accessing your wp-config.php file. 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 Website Installation Files

Delete or rename the install.php, upgrade.php and readme.html files from your server.

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

Security Measure #7 – Upgrade Your WordPress Software, Plugins And Themes To Their Latest Version

Hackers search for vulnerabilities in previous versions of WordPress that can be exploited, including out-of-date versions of plugins and themes.

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 lets the administrator edit plugin and theme files inside the dashboard area.

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

(Accessing the WordPress theme editor using the dashboard menu)

The WordPress theme editor allows anyone accessing your site to view and change your WordPress theme files, and cause havoc on your site.

To prevent unauthorized people from accessing the 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 – Prevent Access To Your WordPress Uploads Directory

The “uploads” directory contains all the media files that get uploaded to your site.

Normally, this folder is visible to all users online. All someone has to do to view all of the contents in your “uploads” directory is visit the directory using their web browser …

(WordPress uploads folder)

If any files stored in his folder have weaknesses or vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers or malicious users, someone could upload unauthorized file types or compromise the security of your site.

Protecting your directories will prevent online users from accessing 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 consult a professional if you are unsure about what to do.

Security Measure #10 – Security Plugins

Some great WordPress security plugins are available that will address many common security issues WordPress website owners face, such as preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to vital information about your site, protecting your website 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 causing irreparable damage to your site is SecureScanPro.

(SecureScanPro – total security software solution for WordPress)

SecureScanPro is easy to install and easy to use, and does a great job of addressing most of the security areas that WordPress users need to address.

Another great security plugin you may want to consider using is BlogDefender.

Blog Defender Security Solution For WordPress Blogs

(Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress Sites)

Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus WordPress security documentation in PDF and DOC formats.

BlogDefender shows you where the security weaknesses in your WordPress site are …

And then shows you how to quickly and easily fix these …

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

WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WordPress installation, plugins and themes are kept up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.

No matter what type of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, website security is something you simply cannot ignore.

As one last reminder, below is the advice given by an expert on web security to all WordPress users following the mass brute force attacks on WordPress in April 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, website security is very important if you run a WordPress site. Hopefully, this article will help prevent brute-force attacks on your WordPress site. 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 service provider in our WordPress Services Directory.

Also, do yourself a favor and subscribe to WPCompendium.org to receive notifications when we publish new articles and tutorials on WordPress security and reviews of WordPress security plugins.

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