WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS making it a natural target for attempted hacker attacks.

In 2013 a large-scale brute-force attack struck WordPress installations on virtually every host server in existence.

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

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

Brute-Force Attacks

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 a WordPress site. One of these is by trying to guess the site admin’s login username and password. This can be achieved with software tools and scripts that automatically tries to guess hundreds of possible logins in minutes.

If you’re not using strong usernames or unguessable passwords, your site could be easily hacked by repeated attempts to guess your site’s login details.

This is called a “brute-force” login attack.

Botnet Definition

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.org)

”Botnets” are networks of private computers that have been infected with malicious scripts or software, which can then be controlled remotely as a group, often without the unsuspecting computer owners even being aware that this is taking place inside their device.

Botnets are often used to send mass spam emails from computers of unsuspecting users.

Below is a screenshot taken from an internet security monitoring site showing the locations of the command centers of ZeuS – a botnet that has been actively compromising computer networks all around the world since 2009 …

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

These were highly distributed and well organized botnet attacks on WordPress sites. Over 90,000 IP addresses were identified by a number of hosting companies in the initial attack, when millions of attempts to force their way into WordPress site admin areas occurred. The worldwide attack continued after this, with over 30,000 WordPress sites and blogs being hacked every day.

News of this mass brute-force botnet attack was widely reported in all the major webhosting companiesand leading technology publications, such as Forbes, TechNews Daily, BBC News, Tech Crunch, PC Magazine, and even on the official website of the US Department of Homeland Security …

(WordPress powers millions of websites and blogs worldwide, making it an obvious target for hacking attacks)

Does This Mean We Shouldn’t Use WordPress Anymore?

No. In fact, there are many good reasons why you should choose WordPress if you are concerned about the security of your online presence.

We explain what makes WordPress a very secure platform for websites in this article: Is WordPress A Secure Website Platform?

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

Mike Little, one of the co-founders of WordPress with Matt Mullenweg, made the following 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)

Preventing Your WordPress Site From Brute-Force Attacks – Ten Security Points

Every web site with a security vulnerability can present an opportunity to hackers. A compromised site not only offers wannabe hackers opportunities to improve their hacking skills and claim “bragging rights” from their peers, but it can also be a valuable resource for launching denial of service attacks, spreading malware and as a source for creating information theft.

If someone can exploit a software security flaw and compromise the control of your website or blog, that blog can then be employed as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against other valuable web sites.

Additional undesirable results of being hacked include getting blacklisted by Google, having stealthy spam links advertising things like gambling, porn, etc. inserted into your content and page title and descriptions, redirecting visitors to phishing sites, data exfiltration (stealing customer details or Personal Identifiable Information from your web applications), and many other nasty things.

The harsh reality is that malicious bots are probably scouring for security exploits and trying to break into your site right now. Whether they will hack in successfully or not, depends on how challenging you can make it for hackers or bots to continue persisting until they discover how to get access, or are forced to decide to look for a less protected target.

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

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

(Hackertarget – WP Security Check Screenshot image: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)

You will see that the scan will return various results and information about your site …

(website security scan results. Screenshot image: Hackertarget.com)

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

(Screenshot image: BlogDefender site)

Being able to see what 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 can be potentially useful information to hackers, as this informs them about any exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.

If your website is powered by WordPress and you’re not proactive steps to bolster the security of your site, it’s practically guaranteed that, at some point, your site will be hacked, or at least targeted by bots, because these brute-force attacks are systematically hitting WordPress installations all the world!

Typically, when a website or blog gets hacked, blog owners will discover much to their dismay that they have been “locked out” of their own site, or notice that their files have been altered or even entirely wiped out. Often, compromised sites will become infected with malicious scripts or viruses without the owner even being aware that a security breach has taken place.

To help avoid the heartache and aggravation (and significant loss of valuable business data) that comes with having your web site being hacked into, below are ten essential and effective security checks that will help to prevent your WordPress site from being attacked by brute-force botnets.

Note: A few of the steps shown below require some technical understanding of how to modify core WordPress or server files. If you have no technical skills, or don’t want to mess around with file code, then ask your web host or a professional WordPress technical provider for assistance.

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Security Measure #1 – Get In Touch With Your Hosting Service Provider

Contact your webhosting provider and ask them exactly what security measures they offer to help prevent your site from being attacked, and what they do to make sure that your files and data are being backed up.

It is important to check that your host regularly 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 Regularly Up-To-Date

Never rely just on your web host for site backups. Instead, learn how to manage your WordPress site or get this done for you and develop a habit of performing a complete WordPress site maintenance routine on a frequent basis (e.g. daily, weekly, monthly, etc …)

A full WordPress maintenance routine ensures that:

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

A complete WordPress site maintenance routine looks like this …

(Maintaining your WP website fully backed up and up-to-date is vitally important for WordPress security. Screenshot image: WPTrainMe.com)

Again, we cannot stress enough how important maintaining your WordPress site regularly backed up and up-to-date 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 don’t 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 site is the next most important thing you must do after making sure that you are still breathing!

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, 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, Copy And Keep Your WordPress Website Protected With Backup Creator WP Plugin

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

The mass brute-force botnet attack on WordPress is mostly attempting to compromise website admin panels and gain access to the site by exploiting WordPress installations using “admin” as their user name.

For reasons of website security, don’t install sites with the username “admin”. This is the first area of potential vulnerability hackers will test. If your site’s username is admin, you will need to change it immediately.

For a detailed tutorial for WordPress users on how to change your admin username, go here: How To Change Your Admin Username In WordPress

Security Measure #4 – Change Your Password

A “brute force” attack occurs when a malicious script continually and persistently tries to guess the right combination of characters in a username and password that will give the hacker entry to your website.

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

Passwords that are easy to guess, therefore, are very easy targets for attacks. Make sure that you change your password to a string that is at least eight or nine characters long, with both upper and lowercase letters, and add a few “special” characters (^%$#&@*).

Roboform is a password management program you can use to help you generate different difficult passwords …

(You can use a password software tool like Roboform to create unguessable passwords)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to change your password, go here: What To Do If You Need To Change Your 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 site, they will typically look for your wp-config.php file, because this file contains your WordPress database information, security keys, etc. Getting access to this information would allow them to change anything in your database, create a user account, upload files and take control of your site.

In order 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 accessible. 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 Blog Installation Files

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

These files are not required after installation. If you don’t want to remove these files, just rename them.

Security Measure #7 – Upgrade Your WordPress CMS, Themes & Plugins

Hackers are always on the lookout for vulnerabilities they can exploit in outdated WordPress versions, including outdated versions of themes and plugins.

Make sure to keep all of your software files, plugins, themes, etc. up-to-date.

Security Measure #8 – Disable Your WordPress Theme Editor

WordPress comes with a built-in editor that lets the administrator edit theme and plugin files inside the dashboard area.

In WordPress, you can access the WordPress Theme Editor by selecting Appearance > Editor in the main menu …

(The WordPress theme editor is accessible using the WP admin menu)

This means that anyone logging into your site’s admin can view and edit your WordPress files, or create mayhem on your site.

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 Your WordPress Uploads Folder

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

By default, this folder is visible to anyone online. All a person needs to do to view the contents stored in your “uploads” folder is visit your directory using a web browser …

(WordPress has an uploads directory where all of your media files are stored)

If any directories in your website have vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers, anyone can upload unauthorized file types to 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, adding a blank index.php file (this is literally a file with nothing in it called “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 – Security Plugins

Some great WordPress security plugins are available that specifically address most security issues faced by WordPress website owners, such as preventing hackers from gaining access to vital areas of your site, protecting your files from malicious scripts, preventing unauthorized file uploads, etc.

Many WordPress plugins address some but not all areas of WordPress security. One security plugin that seems to do 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 – total security software solution for WordPress)

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

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

Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin

(Blog Defender Security Suite)

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

BlogDefender scans you website for security vulnerabilities …

And lets you fix these quickly, easily and inexpensively …

If you don’t want to purchase 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 essential maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WordPress installation, plugins and WordPress themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data protection 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, you simply cannot afford to ignore the importance of securing your web sites.

As one last reminder of the importance of website security, below is the advice given by a web security expert to all WordPress users after 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 of the utmost importance 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 WordPress security specialist, or search for a professional WordPress service provider in our WordPress Services Directory.

We also recommend subscribing to WPCompendium.org to be notified via email whenever we publish new articles and tutorials on WordPress security and tutorials about new security plugins.

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