Powering millions of sites worldwide makes WordPress a frequent target for hacking.

In early 2013, WordPress installations around the world were subjected to large-scale brute-force attacks.

These attacks were caused by computer networks infected with viruses and programmed to attack other vulnerable sites (called “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 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 using software tools that can work through hundreds of possible logins in minutes.

If you’re using predictable login details, your site can be easily hacked by a script’s repeated attempts to work out 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)

A “Botnet” is a network of private computers that have been compromised and infected with malicious code, which can then be controlled remotely as a group, typically without the computer owners even being aware that this is taking place inside their machine.

Botnets are often used to send out mass spam emails.

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 infecting computer networks all around the world since 2009 called “Zeus” …

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

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

Coverage of this brute-force attack was reported by all of the major webhosting companies, as well as the leading technology media publications, such as TechNews Daily, Forbes, Tech Crunch, PC Magazine, BBC News, 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 We Shouldn’t Use WordPress Anymore?

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

To understand what makes WordPress a very secure platform for websites, see this article: Can You Build A Secure Business Online Using WordPress?

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

Mike Little, the co-founder 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 Brute Force Attacks – 10 Security Checks

Every website with a vulnerability offers some degree of potential value to hackers. No website or blog is completely safe from a cyber attack. Business web sites, personal blogs, government web sites … even sites owned by web security and anti-hacking experts can and have been targeted.

If a malicious user can discover a flaw in your security that allows them to gain remote access and control of your site, that blog can then be used to attack other valued web sites.

Additional undesirable consequences of having your site hacked include getting blacklisted by Google, having spammy links promoting things like viagra, cheap offers on brand names, etc. inserted into your content and meta data, malicious redirects to phishing sites or other websites, drive-by downloads (adding malicious programs on your visitors’ computers), and many other nasties.

The reality is that hackers are trying to break into your website or blog as you are reading this at this very moment. Whether they can hack into your site successfully will depend on how challenging you can make it for them to continue persisting until they can either find how to get access, or decide to look for a more vulnerable target.

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

Does your website run on WordPress? If so visit a site like Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security scan …

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

You will see that the check returns various results and information about your site setup …

(WordPress security scan results. Image source: Hackertarget.com)

It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can see all of this information, so can hackers.

(Source: BlogDefender.com)

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 informs them about potentially exploitable vulnerabilities, especially in older versions.

If your site or blog is driven by WordPress and you’re not precautionary steps to toughen up your site, then we can practically guarantee that, at some time in the near future, your site will be hacked, or at least targeted by bots, because these brute force attacks are systematically hitting WordPress installations worldwide!

Whenever a website gets compromised, webmasters will find themselves “locked out” of their own site, or notice that their files have been vandalized or that everything has been entirely wiped out. Typically, most compromised sites will be infected with malicious scripts or viruses without the owner’s knowledge or awareness.

To avoid the heartache (and potential financial loss) of having your web site being hacked into, below are ten simple, yet essential and effective security measures that will help to prevent your WordPress site from being brute-force attacked.

Note: Some of the recommended steps listed below need some technical understanding of how to modify core WordPress and/or server files. If you are not technical-minded, or don’t want to mess around with file code, then ask your web host or search for a professional WordPress technical provider in our WordPress Services Directory.

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Security Measure #1 – Contact Your Host

Get in touch with your web host and ask them what security measures have been put in place to help prevent your site from botnet attacks, and what they are doing to ensure that your server files and data are being regularly backed up.

Make sure that your hosting provider is backing up your server files and that, if disaster strikes, you can quickly and easily get back your files and data.

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

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

A complete WordPress maintenance routine ensures that:

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

A complete WordPress maintenance routine looks like this …

(Maintaining your WP site regularly backed up and updated is vitally important for WordPress security. Screenshot: WPTrainMe.com)

Again, we cannot stress enough how important it is to maintain your WP web site fully backed up and up-to-date. WordPress maintenance is not hard to do or time-consuming, but it must be done to ensure the security of your website. If you don’t 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 second most important thing you should do after making sure that you still have a pulse!

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here: Backup, Duplicate & Keep Your WordPress Websites Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

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

the worldwide brute-force botnet attack on WordPress sites was mostly attempting to compromise website administrator panels and gain access to sites by exploiting WP installations that used “admin” as the account name.

For reasons of website security, don’t set 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”, then make sure you change it immediately.

We have created a detailed step-by-step tutorial created especially for non-technical WordPress users on how to change your admin username here: Changing Your WP User Name From Admin To A Different Username

Security Measure #4 – Change Your Password

A “brute force” attack occurs when a malicious script continually hits a username and password field with different character strings trying to guess the right combination that will unlock your website.

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

Weak passwords, therefore, are very easy targets for botnets. Make sure that you change your password to a string that is at least 8 or 9 characters long, and that includes upper and lowercase letters, and “special” characters (e.g. %, $, *, etc).

You can use a password management software tool like Roboform to help you generate passwords …

(You can use a password management tool like Roboform to create difficult passwords)

For a detailed tutorial created especially for non-technical WordPress admin users that shows you how to change your WordPress admin password, go here: What To Do If You Need To Change The Login Password

Security Measure #5 – Deny 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 website, they will typically try to access the wp-config.php file, because this is the file that 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, prevent people from being able to easily get to 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 – Delete Or Rename Unnecessary Installation Files

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

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

Security Measure #7 – Keep Your WordPress Blog, Plugins & Themes Up-To-Date

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

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

Security Measure #8 – Disable Your Theme Editor

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

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

(The WordPress theme editor can be accessed using the dashboard menu)

The WordPress theme editor lets anyone accessing your site see and modify your WP theme template files, or cause havoc on your site.

If you want to prevent people from accessing 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 The Site’s Uploads Directory

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

By default, this folder is visible to anyone online. All someone has to do to view the contents stored in your site’s “uploads” folder is visit your directory using their web browser …

(WordPress has an uploads folder where your media files are stored)

If any files stored in his folder have weaknesses or vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers or malicious users, this can become a serious threat to 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, adding a blank index.php file (this is literally an empty file called “index.php”) to your uploads directory, and so on. Again, it’s best to ask help from someone who knows what they are doing if you are unsure about what to do.

Security Measure #10 – Install WordPress Security Plugins

A number of great WordPress security plugins are available that will address many common security issues WordPress website owners face, such as preventing hackers from accessing your site, protecting your website from malicious scripts, preventing unauthorized file uploads, etc.

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

(SecureScanPro – WP total security plugin)

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

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

Blog Defender Security Product Suite For WordPress

(Blog Defender)

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

BlogDefender scans you WordPress site for security holes …

And lets you fix these quickly …

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

WordPress is a secure platform, but neglecting essential maintenance tasks like ensuring that your WP core files, 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 kind 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 web security.

As a final reminder, below is the advice given by a security expert to all WordPress users after the large-scale 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, website security is very important if you run a WordPress site. Hopefully, the above information will help 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 WordPress security specialist, or search for a professional WordPress service provider in our WordPress Services Directory.

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

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