WordPress powers millions of websites and blogs around the world, which makes it a target for attempted hacking attacks.

In early 2013 a global brute force attack hit WordPress installations on almost every WP hosting server in existence.

These attacks were caused by botnets (networks of infected computers programmed to attack other 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)

There are many methods hackers use to try and 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 programs and scripts that can work through hundreds of possible login combinations in minutes.

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

This is called a “brute-force” 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)

”Botnets” are networks of computers that have been infected with malicious software, which are then controlled remotely as a group, typically without the computer owners even being aware that this is going on inside their machine.

Botnets are typically used to send out mass spam emails from the infected computers of unsuspecting users.

The screenshot below was taken from an internet security monitoring site showing the locations of the command centers of a botnet that has been actively compromising computer networks all around the globe since 2009 called “Zeus” …

(The Zeus botnet has been actively infecting computer networks all around the globe since 2009. Screenshot source: SecureList.com)

These were highly distributed and well organized botnet attacks. Over 90,000 IP addresses were identified by a number of hosting companies just in the initial attack, when the web was flooded with millions of attempts to force their way into WordPress users administration areas. The mass attacks then continued, with over 30,000 WordPress blogs being hacked per day.

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

(Being the world’s most popular content management system makes WordPress a target for attempted hacker attacks)

Does This Mean We Shouldn’t Use WordPress Anymore?

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

To learn why WordPress is a secure web platform, see this article: How Secure Is WordPress?

It’s important to note that, in the case of the brute force attack described above, there was actually no WordPress vulnerability being exploited (the same script was also attacking sites built using platforms like Joomla).

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

Protecting Your WordPress Site From Being Brute-Force Attacked – 10 Security Points

Every site with a vulnerability has some degree of potential value to hackers. An unsecured site provides hackers with a platform to launch DDoS attacks, spread malware and engage in information theft.

If someone can find a way to take over your website or blog, your website can then be employed to target more valuable web sites.

Additional undesirable impacts of having your site hacked include getting blacklisted by search engines, having spammy links advertising things like viagra, cheap offers on brand names, etc. inserted into your content and meta data, malicious redirects to phishing sites, data exfiltration (stealing information or Personal Identifiable Information from your web applications), and many other nasty things.

The truth is that software-driven bots are very likely searching for weaknesses and trying to hack into your site right now. Whether they will hack into your site depends on how challenging you can make it for hackers to keep persisting until they can discover a way to break in, or give up and go look for a less secure target.

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

If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …

(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Check Product image source: https://hackertarget.com/wordpress-security-scan)

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

(Hackertarget – website security check results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)

It should be obvious after using the above tool that if you can access all of this information about your website, then hackers can too.

(Product image source: BlogDefender website)

Being able 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 in your site can all be useful information to hackers, as these can inform them about any potential security weaknesses, especially in older versions.

If your website is powered by WordPress and you are not taking appropriate steps to toughen up your site, then we can practically guarantee that, at some point in time, someone will attempt to hack your installation, because these attacks are systematically targeting WordPress installations all the world!

When a site is compromised, site owners will discover much to their dismay that they have been “locked out” of their own site, or notice that their files have been modified or that everything has been entirely wiped out. Often, most sites will become infected with malicious software or viruses without the owner’s knowledge or awareness.

To avoid the heartache (and significant loss of valuable business data) that comes with having your web site being hacked into, below are 10 simple, yet essential and effective security checks that will help to prevent your WordPress site from being attacked by brute-force botnets.

Note: Some of the measures listed 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 search for a professional WordPress service provider in our WordPress Services Directory.

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

Contact your hosting company and ask them what security measures have been put into place to help prevent your site from being attacked, and what they are doing to make sure that your server files and data get backed up.

It is important to make sure that your web host regularly backs up your sites and that, if disaster strikes, you can easily get your files and data back.

Security Measure #2 – Back Up Your WordPress Data And Files And Keep Your Site Regularly Updated

You should never rely just on your webhosting provider for site backups. Instead, learn how to maintain your WordPress site or get this service done for you and develop a habit of performing a complete WordPress site maintenance routine on a frequent basis (e.g. daily, weekly, fortnightly, 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 WordPress software, themes and plugins are up-to-date,
• etc …

A proper WordPress maintenance routine looks like this …

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

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

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

Security Measure #3 – Make Sure That Your Username Is Not “Admin”

the worldwide brute-force attack on WordPress sites was mostly an attempt to compromise site administrator panels and gain access to the site by exploiting WP installations using “admin” as the username.

For security purposes, avoid setting up 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, then change this immediately.

We have created a tutorial on how to change your admin username here: How To Change Your WordPress Admin Username

Security Measure #4 – Your Password

A “brute force” attack occurs when malicious software continually tries to guess the right password and username character string that will give the hacker access to your site.

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

Passwords that are easy to guess, therefore, make really easy targets for bot attacks. Make sure that you change your password to a string that is at least eight characters long, and that includes upper and lowercase letters, combined with a few “special” characters (e.g. ^, #, @, etc).

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

(You can use a password tool like Roboform to create hard-to-crack passwords)

We have created a simple tutorial on how to change your password here: What To Do If You Need To Reset WordPress Passwords

Security Measure #5 – Prevent Access To Your wp-config.php 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 hackers break into your site, they will search for the wp-config.php file, because this is the file that 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.

In order to protect your WordPress site from being attacked and even being used as part of a bot net, therefore, 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 the install.php, upgrade.php and readme.html files from your server.

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

Security Measure #7 – Upgrade Your WordPress Files, Themes & Plugins To Their Latest Version

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

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

Security Measure #8 – Disable The Theme Editor

WordPress installations come with a built-in editor that allows you to edit plugin and theme code inside the dashboard.

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

(The WordPress theme editor is accessible using the WordPress main menu)

The WordPress theme feature lets anyone accessing your blog view and change your theme files, or cause mayhem on your site.

To prevent 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 – Secure Your Site’s Uploads Folder

The “uploads” folder stores all the media files that get uploaded to your site.

By default, this folder is visible to all users online. All a person needs to do to view all of the contents stored in your site’s “uploads” directory is visit the 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 could 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 a blank file called “index.php”) to your uploads directory, and so on. Again, it’s best to get professional assistance if you are not sure about what to do.

Security Measure #10 – Install Security Plugins

A number of great WordPress security plugins are available that specifically address most security issues WordPress website owners face, such as preventing hackers from gaining access to vital areas of your site, protecting your site from botnets, preventing unauthorized file uploads, etc.

Many WordPress plugins address some but not all areas of WordPress security. One 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 – 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 great plugin you may want to look at using is BlogDefender.

Blog Defender

(Blog Defender Security Suite)

This product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, WordPress plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.

BlogDefender scans you web site for potential security weaknesses …

And then shows you how to fix these quickly …

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

WordPress is a secure web platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, WP plugins and WP themes, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your site to attacks by hackers and bots.

Regardless of the 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 website security.

As a final reminder, below is the advice given by an expert on website 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 of the utmost importance if you run a WordPress site. Hopefully, the information in this article has given you the initial guidelines and help you need to prevent brute-force attacks on your WordPress site. If you need any further help or assistance with WordPress security, please consult a professional WordPress security specialist, or search for a WordPress technical provider in our WordPress Services Directory.

Also, please subscribe to WPCompendium.org to receive notifications whenever we publish new tips on WordPress security and tutorials about WordPress security plugins and solutions.

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