WordPress often comes under attack by hackers, due to its global popularity.

In April 2013 a mass brute-force attack hit WordPress installations on virtually every WP hosting server in existence.

These attacks were caused by computer networks infected with malware and programmed to attack other installations, also commonly known as “botnets”.

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

About 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 methods hackers use to try and break into WordPress sites. One of these is by trying to guess the site admin’s login username and password. This is achieved with software tools that automatically tries to guess hundreds of login permutations in minutes.

If you’re using predictable usernames and passwords that are easy to guess, your site can be easily hacked by the software’s repeated attempts to work out your site’s login details.

This is called a “brute-force” login 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)

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

Botnets are often used to send mass spam emails.

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 infecting computer networks all around the globe since 2009 …

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

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

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

(WordPress is often the target of worldwide attacks by hackers, due to its global popularity)

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

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

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

It’s important to understand that, in the case of the mass 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 Blog From Brute Force Attacks – 10 Security Checks

Every web site with a vulnerability offers some value to hackers. A vulnerable website or blog offers malicious users with a platform for denial of service attacks, spreading malware and as a source of information theft.

If a hacker can find a way to gain remote control of your website, your site can then be employed as part of a larger network of “bots” to target other valued sites.

Additional undesirable results of having your site hacked include being blacklisted by search engines, having spammy links advertising things like gambling, cheap offers on brand names, etc. inserted in your content and page title and descriptions, redirecting visitors to phishing sites or other websites, data exfiltration (stealing information or Personal Identifiable Information from your web applications), and lots of other nasties.

The truth is that brute-force software bots are very likely trying to break into your blog while you are reading this article. Whether they can break into your site will depend on how challenging you will make it for hackers or bots to continue trying until they discover how to get access, or are forced to give up and decide to look for a less protected target.

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

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

(Hackertarget – Website Security Scan Screenshot: Hackertarget.com)

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

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

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

(Product image 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 can be useful information to hackers, as this informs them about any security vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.

If your site or blog runs on WordPress and you’re not preventive steps to harden your site, then it’s practically guaranteed that, at some point, someone will attempt to hack your website, because these brute-force attacks are systematically hitting WordPress installations around the world!

When a site gets compromised, blog owners will find themselves “locked out” of their own site, or notice that their files have been interfered with or even that their content has been entirely wiped out. Often, sites will become infected with malicious software or viruses without the owner’s knowledge or awareness.

To help avoid the heartache and frustration of having your website or blog being hacked into, we have listed below 10 essential and effective security measures that will help to prevent your WordPress site from brute-force attacks.

Note: A few of the recommended steps below need some technical skills to modify core WordPress and/or 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 help.

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Security Measure #1 – Contact Your Hosting Company

Get in touch with your webhosting service provider and ask them exactly what security systems are in place to protect your site from being attacked, and what is done to ensure that your server files and data get regularly backed up.

It is important to make sure that your host is regularly backing up your sites and that, if anything should happen, you can quickly and easily recover your site.

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

You should never rely only on your webhosting provider for site backups. Instead, learn how to maintain and manage your WordPress site or pay someone to get this done for you and develop a habit of performing a full WordPress site maintenance routine frequently (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, themes and plugins are up-to-date,
• etc …

A full WordPress maintenance routine looks like this …

(Maintaining your WP installation completely backed up and up-to-date is vitally important for WordPress security. Image source: WPTrainMe.com)

Again, we cannot stress enough how important it is to maintain your WordPress site frequently backed up and updated. WordPress site maintenance is not hard to do 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 WordPress maintenance yourself, pay someone 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 you still have a pulse!

If you don’t want to back up your files manually, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here: Backup, Duplicate & Keep Your WordPress Website Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

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

The brute force attack on WordPress is mostly attempting to compromise website admin panels and gain access to the site by exploiting sites that used “admin” as the user name.

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

We have created a tutorial for non-technical WordPress admin users that shows you how to change your username here: Changing Your Admin User Name In WordPress To A Different Username

Security Measure #4 – Make Sure Your Password Is Strong

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

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

Passwords that are easy to guess, therefore, make very easy targets for attacks. Make sure that you change your password to something that contains at least 8 characters long, with both upper and lowercase letters, combined with “special” characters (%^#$@&*).

Roboform is a password software that lets you easily generate secure passwords …

(Roboform is a password program you can use to help you generate strong passwords)

For a simple step-by-step tutorial for non-technical WP admin users on how to change your password, go here: What To Do If You Need To Change Passwords

Security Measure #5 – Prevent Your wp-config.php File From Being Easily Visible

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

(wp-config.php)

If hackers break into your website, they will typically try to access your wp-config.php file, because this file contains your 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.

To protect your WordPress site from being attacked 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 Installation Files

Rename or delete 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, then just rename them.

Security Measure #7 – Keep Your WordPress Software, Plugins And Themes Up-To-Date

Hackers search for vulnerabilities they can exploit in earlier WordPress versions, including outdated versions of WP themes and plugins.

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

Security Measure #8 – Disable The WordPress Theme Editor

WordPress installations come with a built-in editor that lets the site administrator edit theme and plugin files inside the dashboard.

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

(The WordPress theme editor can be accessed via the WordPress main menu)

This allows anyone accessing your site to view and modify your theme templates, and cause havoc 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 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 anyone online. All someone has to do to view the contents stored in your “uploads” folder is visit the directory using a web browser …

(WordPress has an uploads folder where all of your media files are 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 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 a blank file named “index.php”) to your uploads directory, and so on. Again, it’s best to get professional help if you are not sure about what to do.

Security Measure #10 – WordPress Security Plugins

Several security plugins for WordPress are available that will address most security issues WordPress site owners face, such as preventing unauthorized users from accessing your site, protecting your site from brute-force attacks, preventing unauthorized file uploads, etc.

Most WordPress plugins address some but not all areas of WordPress security. One WordPress 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 irreparable damage to your site is SecureScanPro.

(SecureScanPro – WP 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 security plugin you may want to look at using is BlogDefender.

Blog Defender

(Blog Defender)

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

BlogDefender shows you where potential security weaknesses in your web site are …

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

If you don’t want to buy 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 essential maintenance tasks like updating your WordPress installation, plugins and WordPress themes, tightening file and data security 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, you cannot ignore the importance of securing your sites.

As one last reminder of the importance of keeping your websites protected, below is the advice given by a website security expert to all WordPress users after the global brute force attacks by botnets 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, WordPress security is very important if you run a WordPress site. Hopefully, the information in this article has provided you with the initial steps you need to take to keep your WordPress site protected from brute force attacks. 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 technical provider in our WordPress Services Directory.

Also, do yourself a favor and subscribe to WPCompendium.org to be notified via email when we publish new articles and tutorials on WordPress security and reviews of new security plugins and solutions.

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