WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attacks by hackers.

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

These attacks were caused by botnets (computers infected with malware and programmed to attack other installations 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)

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

If you’re using easy-to-guess usernames and predictable passwords, your website can be an easy target for hacking attempts.

This is called a “brute force” attack.

What Is A Botnet?

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 computers that have been compromised and infected with malicious code or software, which are then controlled remotely as a group, typically without the computer owners even being aware that this is going on.

Botnets are normally used used to send out mass spam emails.

Below is a screenshot 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 …

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

These ongoing botnet attacks on WordPress sites were well organized and highly distributed. Over 90,000 IP addresses were identified by several hosting companies just in the initial attack, when millions of attempts to force their way into WordPress user administration areas took place. The mass brute force attacks then continued, with over 30,000 WordPress sites and blogs being hacked per day.

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

(WordPress is frequently the target of malicious attacks by hackers)

Does This Mean We Should Stop Using WordPress?

No. In fact, there are lots of good reasons why you should use WordPress if you are concerned about website security.

We explain why WordPress is a secure web platform in this article: Are Open Source CMS Platforms Like WordPress Secure?

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

Protecting Your WordPress Site From Brute Force Attacks – 10 Security Measures

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

If a malicious user can hack into and take over your blog, the website can then be used as a “bot” in a planned cyber-attack against other valued sites.

Additional undesirable results of having your website hacked and your site security compromised include getting blacklisted by search engines, having spammy links advertising things like online meds, discounted fashion, etc. inserted into your content and meta data, malicious redirects to phishing sites and other websites, data exfiltration (stealing customer details or Personal Identifiable Information from your web applications), and many other nasty things.

The harsh reality is that software-driven bots are probably searching for exploits and trying to hack into your blog at this very moment. Whether they can break in successfully or not, depends on how hard you will make things for hackers to continue trying until they can discover how to get in, 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?

Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit Hackertarget.com and run your website through their WordPress security check …

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

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

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

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

(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)

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 in your site can all be valuable information to hackers, as this can inform them about potentially exploitable security vulnerabilities, especially where site owners haven’t updated their software versions.

If your website is driven by WordPress and you’re not taking steps to bullet-proof your site, then we can practically guarantee that, at some time in the near future, someone will attempt to hack your website, because these brute-force attacks are systematically hitting WordPress installations worldwide!

Typically, when a website is hacked, webmasters can find themselves completely “locked out” of their own site, or notice that their content has been modified or that everything has been entirely wiped out. Typically, most compromised sites will become infected with malicious software without the owner even being aware of it.

To help avoid the heartache and aggravation that comes with having your website being hacked into, we have listed below 10 essential and effective security measures that will help to protect your WordPress site from being brute-force attacked.

Note: Some of the measures listed below need some technical skills to modify core WordPress or server files. If you lack these technical skills, 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 – Contact Your Web Host

Get in touch with your web host and ask them what measures are in place to help prevent your site from being attacked, and what is done to make sure that your WordPress sites get regularly backed up.

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

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

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

A proper WordPress maintenance routine ensures that:

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

A complete WordPress site maintenance routine looks like this …

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

Again, we cannot stress enough how vitally important maintaining your WordPress installation frequently backed up and updated is. WP maintenance is not hard 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 maintenance yourself, pay a professional to do it but make sure this gets done. Backing up your site is the next most important thing you should do after making sure that your heart is still beating!

If you don’t want to back up your site manually, there are a number of free and paid plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate And Protect Your WP Web Site With Backup Creator WordPress Plugin

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

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

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 site’s user name is “admin”, then change it immediately.

For a simple step-by-step tutorial for non-technical WP admin users on how to change your WordPress admin username, go here: Changing Your WordPress User Name From Admin To A Different User Name

Security Measure #4 – Change Your Password

A “brute force” attack occurs when malicious software continually and persistently hits a login or password field with different character strings in an attempt to guess the right combination that will unlock your site.

Unless you put some measure in place to block 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 “cracks” the code.

Weak passwords, therefore, make very easy targets for brute-force attacks. Make sure that you change your password combination to something that is at least 8 or 9 characters long, with upper and lowercase letters, combined with “special” characters (%^#$@&*).

If you have trouble coming up with strong passwords or you are reluctant to set up different passwords for all of your online logins, then use a password management program like Roboform …

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

We have created a detailed tutorial for non-technical WordPress users that shows you how to change your login password here: What To Do If You Need To Change Your Password

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

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

(wp-config.php file)

If a hacker breaks into your WordPress site, they will search for your wp-config.php file, because this is the file that contains your database information, 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 attacks and even being used as part of a bot net, therefore, you must prevent people finding 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 WP Installation Files

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

You can remove these files after installation, as they are unnecessary. If you don’t want to delete these files, just rename them.

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

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

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

Security Measure #8 – Disable Your WordPress Theme Editor

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

You can access your WordPress Theme Editor by selecting Appearance > Editor from your main menu …

(The WordPress theme editor is accessible via the admin menu)

The WordPress theme editor allows anyone accessing your blog to view and modify all of your WordPress files, or cause havoc on your site.

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

Security Measure #9 – Remove Access To The WordPress Uploads Directory

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

Normally, this folder is visible to online users. All a person needs to do to view the contents in your site’s “uploads” folder is visit the directory using a 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 hackers, anyone can upload unauthorized file types or compromise the security of your website.

Protecting your directories will prevent online users 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 get professional assistance if you are unsure about what to do.

Security Measure #10 – WordPress Security Plugins

A number of WordPress security plugins are available that specifically address most security issues faced by WordPress site owners, such as preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to vital areas of your site, protecting your files from malicious software, 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 issues that could lead to hackers accessing your files and causing damage to your site is SecureScanPro.

(SecureScanPro – WP security software)

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

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

Blog Defender Security Plugin

(Blog Defender Security Plugin For WordPress)

This product is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, 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 and easily …

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

WordPress is a very secure platform, but neglecting simple maintenance tasks like keeping your WP software, plugins and themes up-to-date, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can expose your website 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, you cannot afford to ignore the importance of web security.

As one last reminder, below is the advice given by a security expert to all WordPress users after the large-scale brute force attacks 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 of the utmost importance if you run a WordPress site. Hopefully, the information in this 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 consult a professional WordPress security specialist, or search for a WordPress service provider in our WordPress Services Directory.

We also recommend subscribing to WPCompendium.org to receive notifications via email when we publish new tutorials on WordPress security and reviews of new security plugins and solutions.

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