WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system making it an obvious target for hacking attacks.

In April 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to a worldwide brute force attack.

These attacks were caused by computer networks infected with malware and programmed to attack other vulnerable installations (botnets).

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

Brute Force Attacks – An Overview

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 will attempt to break into a WordPress site is by trying to guess the site admin’s login username and password. This is done using software tools that can guess hundreds of login permutations in minutes.

If you’re using weak login details, your site can be an easy target for hackers.

This is called a “brute force” attack.

What Are 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/botnet)

”Botnets” are networks of computers that have been infected with malicious scripts or software, which can then be controlled remotely as a group, typically without the unsuspecting computer owners’ knowledge or awareness.

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

The screenshot below was taken from a site that monitors online security showing the locations of the command centers of ZeuS – a botnet that has been actively infecting computer networks all around the globe since 2009 …

(ZeuS is a botnet that has been actively compromising computer networks all around the world 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 alone, when millions of attempts to force their way into WordPress users administration areas took place. The worldwide brute-force attacks continued after this, with over 30,000 WordPress blogs being hacked per day.

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

(Being the world’s most used content management system makes WordPress a target for malicious attacks by hackers)

Does This Mean WordPress Is Not Secure And We Should Stop Using It?

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 understand why WordPress is a secure platform for websites, read this article: Is WordPress A Secure Website Platform?

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

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

Preventing Your WordPress Website From Being Brute Force Attacked – 10 Security Checks

Every web site with a vulnerability can be an opportunity to hackers. A compromised site not only provides hackers opportunities to improve their hacking skills and claim “bragging rights” from their peers, but it can also be a platform for stealth attacks, spreading malware and participating in information theft.

If a malicious user can find a security vulnerability in your system that allows them to remotely control your web site, the blog can then be used as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against more valued web sites.

Additional undesirable results of having your website hacked and your site security compromised include getting blacklisted by search engines, having spammy links promoting things like gambling, porn, etc. inserted in your content and meta data, malicious redirects to phishing sites, drive-by downloads (adding malicious software on your visitors’ computers), and many other nasties.

The truth is that hackers are trying to break into your website or blog at this very moment. Whether they can break in successfully or not, depends on how hard or easy you can make it for hackers or bots to continue persisting until they either work out how to get access, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a more vulnerable target.

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

If you visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …

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

You will see that the test returns a number of results and details about your site …

(website security scan results. Source: Hackertarget.com)

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

(Screenshot: 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 can be valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about potential vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.

If your website runs on WordPress and you’re not proactive steps to toughen up your site, then it’s practically guaranteed that, at some point in time, someone will attempt to hack your site, because these brute-force attacks are systematically hitting WordPress installations worldwide!

Typically, when a site is hacked, webmasters will discover much to their dismay that they have been “locked out” of their own site, or notice that their files have been interfered with or that everything has been entirely wiped out. Often, most compromised sites will be infected with malicious software without the owner even being aware that a security breach has happened.

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

Note: A few of the steps listed below need some technical skills to modify core WordPress and server files. If you lack these technical skills, or don’t want to mess around with file code, 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 Hosting Company

Contact your host and ask them what precautions are in place to help prevent your site from being attacked, and what is done to ensure that your WordPress sites are being regularly backed up.

It is important to check that your hosting service provider regularly backs up your sites and that, if disaster strikes, you can quickly and easily recover your files.

Security Measure #2 – Perform Full WordPress Backups And Keep Your Website Or Blog Regularly Maintained

You should never rely only on your webhosting provider for site backups. Instead, learn how to maintain and manage your WordPress site or get this done for you and develop a habit of religiously performing a full site maintenance routine on a frequent basis (e.g. weekly, monthly, etc …)

A full WordPress maintenance routine ensures that:

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

A complete WordPress site maintenance routine looks like this …

(Maintaining your WordPress website completely backed up and up-to-date is vitally important for WordPress security. Source: WPTrainMe.com)

Again, we cannot stress enough how important it is to maintain your WordPress web site regularly backed up and updated. WordPress 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 WP maintenance yourself, get someone else to do it but make sure this gets done. Backing up your site is the second 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 free and paid WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Back Up, Clone & Keep Your WP Web Site Protected With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

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

The mass brute force botnet attack on WordPress is mostly an attempt to compromise site administrator panels and gain access to the site by exploiting WP sites that used “admin” as the username.

For reasons of website security, avoid setting up a WordPress site with the username admin. This is the first area of potential vulnerability hackers will test. If your site’s username is “admin”, change it immediately.

For a simple tutorial on how to change your login username, go here: How To Change Your WP Admin Username

Security Measure #4 – Use A Strong Password

A “brute force” attack occurs when a malicious script continually hits a username and password field with different strings of characters trying to guess the right combination that will give the hacker entry to 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 gets access.

Weak passwords, therefore, make very easy targets for botnets. Make sure that you change your password to a string containing at least 8 or 9 characters long, with both upper and lowercase letters, combined with a few “special” characters (%^#$@&*).

Roboform is a password management tool that lets you easily generate really secure passwords …

(Roboform is a password program you can use to generate really secure passwords)

For a simple tutorial for admin users that shows you how to change your admin password, go here: How To Reset Your Password In WordPress

Security Measure #5 – Prevent Access To Your WP Config File

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

(wp-config.php)

If hackers break into your WordPress website, they will normally 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 someone 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 attacks and even being used as part of a bot net, therefore, prevent people 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 Installation Files

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

These files can be removed after installation. If you don’t want to delete these files, then just rename them.

Security Measure #7 – Update Your WordPress Software, Plugins And Themes

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

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

Security Measure #8 – Disable Your Theme Editor

WordPress comes with a built-in editor feature that allows administrators to edit plugin and theme code inside the dashboard area.

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

(Accessing the WordPress theme editor via the WP dashboard menu)

This means that anyone logging into your blog’s admin area can view and modify your theme files, and create havoc 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 editing your wp-config.php file.

Security Measure #9 – Prevent Access To Your WordPress Uploads Directory

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

Normally, this folder is visible to anyone online. All a person needs to do to see the contents in your “uploads” folder is visit your directory using their web browser …

(WordPress has an uploads folder where media content is stored)

If any files stored in his folder have weaknesses or vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malicious users, this can seriously threaten the security of your website.

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 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 not sure about what to do.

Security Measure #10 – WordPress Security Plugins

There are a number of great WordPress security plugins available that will address many common security issues WordPress website owners face, such as preventing unauthorized users from accessing vital areas of your site, protecting your website from malicious exploits, preventing unauthorized file uploads, etc.

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

(SecureScanPro – WordPress complete security software)

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 plugin you may want to consider using is BlogDefender.

Blog Defender Security Product Suite

(Blog Defender)

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

BlogDefender shows you where potential security weaknesses in your website are …

And then shows you how to fix these quickly …

If you don’t want to invest in a premium 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, plugins and WordPress themes, tightening file and data protection and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.

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

As a final reminder, below is the advice given by an expert on web security to all WordPress users after the large-scale 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, the above article has shown you what to do to 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 professional WordPress service provider in our WordPress Services Directory.

We also recommend subscribing to WPCompendium.org to be notified when we publish new tips on WordPress security and reviews of WordPress security plugins and solutions.

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