Securing Wordpress

12 years ago

take a look at Better WP Security. i been using it lately and i personally love it. it's free and it does a pretty decent job addressing security issues.

WordPress › Better WP Security « WordPress Plugins

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Sleika 12 years ago

checking it out, ty
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Abledragon

12 years ago

There are lots of things you can do to strengthen your WordPress site's security.

You need to make sure you don't have a user named 'admin', change the database table prefix, use SFTP rather than FTP, place a .htaccess file in your Admin directory, blank index.html files in your plugins and themes directories, and so on.

The second part of this article goes into more detail:

WordPress Security: How to Fix Your Site if it is Hacked | WealthyDragon

Cheers,

Martin.

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DJL

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Abledragon

...
You need to make sure you don't have a user named 'admin', change the database table prefix, use SFTP rather than FTP, place a .htaccess file in your Admin directory, blank index.html files in your plugins and themes directories, and so on.
...

I've done all of the above, yet today the Wordfence security plugin reported about 20 login attempts that were blocked because they used an invalid username.
My question is, how did they get past my .htaccess file (in the wp-admin folder) that reads as follows:
--------------------------------------
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from xx.xx.xx.xxx (My IP Address)
--------------------------------------
I would really appreciate it if anybody can explain this.

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Pecan

12 years ago

I'd make a habit of backing it up often, especially if you plan on playing around with different plugins and themes.

That way you have something to fall back on if things get too messed up.

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AttilaTheHun

12 years ago

If you have some linux skills you can check the final build with wpscan - wpscan.org for vulnerabilities.

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marketwarrior06

Banned 12 years ago

Don't really get it. I have never done this cause its not a big deal. Why you have to secure your site? The normal protection from your hosting is enough I think.

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threezerozero

12 years ago

Originally Posted by marketwarrior06

Don't really get it. I have never done this cause its not a big deal. Why you have to secure your site? The normal protection from your hosting is enough I think.

that's what a few people have told me before until they're sites got hacked. believe me, its better to be safe than sorry...imagine all the hard work and effort you put over a few months destroyed within a few minutes and hours.....

if you think you're safe.....then you'll be in for a rude surprise. im not trying to bash you, but im trying to give you a heads up. installing security measures will be well worth your while in the long run. you may not get hacked immediately....but at some point in the future, someone will try.

i looked at my look on better wp security and within 2 hours of putting up my site, someone was already trying to log into my account. keep in mind i didnt tell anyone i was launching this. be safe out and always keep an eye out for these things.

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AttilaTheHun

12 years ago

Originally Posted by marketwarrior06

Don't really get it. I have never done this cause its not a big deal. Why you have to secure your site? The normal protection from your hosting is enough I think.

Well.. why are you looking left and right before cross the road? To prevent an accident. Similarly we are securing wp sites to prevent hacking. Default WP install is modestly secure. You are installing theme, plugins and increasing the attack surface. You never know when someone will find a software security bug (vulnerability) in the core wp or in any plugin. If you do some preventive measures - rename admin, control unsuccessful logins, change db prefix etc. see above - you can limit the damage and / or make harder an automated attack.
There is no such as "normal protection" at hosting companies for WP. They are protecting their network, securing their host operating system, but in 99% case, that's it. You get a default install of wordpress.

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ArielT

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Sleika

Hi Guys,

Finally getting strarted, got the domain i wanted, hosting, paypal sorted out and decent amount of research done to start ( thanks btw to the warriors that helped me out )

Gonna start working on my site using wordpress - any suggestions for securing the site ?

Yes, I also suggest you "Best WP security", I was reading some days ago this site that talks about and found it useful Best WordPress Security Plugin - Better WP Security Plugin (this isn't a site of mine)

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Sleika

12 years ago

didnt expect this post to show back up, but agree, rather cover you ass ahead of time as best as possible, not saying cant happen but why not look ahead

anyhow, another shout out to the WF forum for some quality advice .... went ahead and installed the Better WP security and been doing back ups

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jtprattmedia

12 years ago

+1 to better WP security plugin (free)

also read our free guide to fixing a hacked WP blog, there are steps you can use to secure and harden your website (before an attack): How to Fix a Hacked Wordpress Blog | JTPRATT Wordpress Consultant

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Marketer Matt

12 years ago

I found this pretty helpful: http://wp.tutsplus.com/tutorials/11-...ordpress-site/

BulletProof security plugin takes care of a lot of this.

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mdan287

12 years ago

Use login attempts. I have set a restriction that after 5 time failure of login attempt within 1hour the user will be banned for next 24 hours.

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DWaters

12 years ago

Originally Posted by marketwarrior06

Don't really get it. I have never done this cause its not a big deal. Why you have to secure your site? The normal protection from your hosting is enough I think.

It is a very big deal. There is no such thing as "normal protection" from your hosting. After I was hacked my hosting company explained that WP hacking is relatively common becasue WP is so common, the hackers go after you.
The Login Lockdown plug, which I recently added, is supposed to help keep out malicilous log in attempts.

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ArielT 12 years ago

Originally Posted by DWaters

The Login Lockdown plug, which I recently added, is supposed to help keep out malicilous log in attempts.

I've read that plug in isn't enough protection, maybe the Better WP security covers all or almost
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DWaters

12 years ago

I've read that plug in isn't enough protection, maybe the Better WP security covers all or almost

Yes, login lock down only deals with one specific issue so it is limited.
WP Firewall 2 was highly recommended on another thread and I recently added that to my WP sites.

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Leslie B

12 years ago

Keeping your WP site secure starts the moment you install it. Don't use scripts like Fantastico that install the blogs for you, but do it manually so you can begin adding security right from the start. Use secure usernames and passwords, not only for your wordpress login, but also for your database and your hosting account itself.

Once your site is up there are a few things to keep in mind, I've written an article on that a few weeks back on my site that you can read here: Tips to Secure and Maintain Your WordPress Blogs | Lady WordPress

Leslie

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Sleika 12 years ago

Hi Leslie

Checked out your article, great read
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ArielT 12 years ago

Originally Posted by Leslie B

Don't use scripts like Fantastico that install the blogs for you, but do it manually so you can begin adding security right from the start.
Leslie

Hello Leslie, what advantage in security by intalling it manually?

And do you use any plugin for security? like for example "better WP security"
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Leslie B

12 years ago

Just a few reasons why not to use fantastico:
* your database name, username and password aren't secure
* your table prefix will always be the same one (something I change when I install it manually)

Those are things hackers will look for when trying to get access to a WP site. After that, comes the passwords and usernames for the wp-admin that aren't secure enough (although, these days you can choose your own username and password in Fantastico, I believe, not completely sure since I don't use it).

You can change that afterwards, of course, but that's more hassle then just taking the 5 minutes to install WP manually and do it right from the start. People always say that they use Fantastico because it's, fast, but honestly, I timed myself the very first time i did it manually and it took me about 10 minutes, now it takes me 5 minutes. Fantastico isn't that much faster.

Leslie

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ArielT

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Leslie B

Just a few reasons why not to use fantastico:
* your database name, username and password aren't secure
* your table prefix will always be the same one (something I change when I install it manually)

Those are things hackers will look for when trying to get access to a WP site. After that, comes the passwords and usernames for the wp-admin that aren't secure enough (although, these days you can choose your own username and password in Fantastico, I believe, not completely sure since I don't use it).

You can change that afterwards, of course, but that's more hassle then just taking the 5 minutes to install WP manually and do it right from the start. People always say that they use Fantastico because it's, fast, but honestly, I timed myself the very first time i did it manually and it took me about 10 minutes, now it takes me 5 minutes. Fantastico isn't that much faster.

Leslie

After making this do you think a security plugin is required or not?

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Leslie B

12 years ago

Originally Posted by ArielT

After making this do you think a security plugin is required or not?

I still use security plugins, yes, mostly ones that do what I didn't do manually already. If you're making money from your site you owe it to yourself to make sure you did everything you could to keep them from breaking your site. I learned that the hard way when I had a site hacked that made me a decent amount of money and it took me a week to clean it and over a month to get my ranking back.

Leslie

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ArielT

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Leslie B

I still use security plugins, yes, mostly ones that do what I didn't do manually already. If you're making money from your site you owe it to yourself to make sure you did everything you could to keep them from breaking your site. I learned that the hard way when I had a site hacked that made me a decent amount of money and it took me a week to clean it and over a month to get my ranking back.

Leslie

What plug-in you would recommend me after making those things manually?

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Walter Parrish 12 years ago

Just a sidenote;

I got that WP Better Security and I loved the program, but I got locked out lolol. I thought I had a secure cert and enabled that and was unable to get back on my site until I went and paid for the cert and installed it. Other than that great program.

I didn't like bullet proof because it seemed that I couldn't password protect my admin directory via htaccess which I'm used to doing.
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Patrick Batty

12 years ago

Hey Sleika.
Fellow warrior, Shane Melaugh, wrote a fantastic post a few months back, taking people through EVERYHING they need to do to secure WordPress. (Thanks Shane!)
Just follow his instructions.. there's nothing needed to buy.. I did it on all my sites.
WordPress Security: How to Lock Down Your WordPress Site - IM Impact

Worked like a charm.
All the best,
Patrick

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jakeb

12 years ago

Dynamicnet.net has a killer .htaccess file for Wordpress. Unfortunately I'm too new to post links. It's super easy to find though, I use it for all my installs.

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WinsonYeung

12 years ago

Try wordpress login lock down plugin here

Bad Neighborhood - Login LockDown WordPress Security Plugin (not my affiliate)

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MatthewWoodward

12 years ago

I had a wordpress site that was repeatedly getting hacked over and over no matter what I did to lock it down.

In the end I discovered WordPress › WordPress Firewall 2 « WordPress Plugins which stopped the hacks. It is surprsing how many e-mails you get of people trying to hack sites :S

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Dave3110

12 years ago

Would recommend better WP security.

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eb219

12 years ago

I see some great recommendations here already, like WP Better Security. Wordpress users should also consider the importance of malware scanning. I personally use Sucuri Scanner (free) and Anti-Malware (also free) plugins, they both work great.

Since I host a few WPMS installs, the importance of lock-tight security cannot be understated when you're working with 20-30 sites on one host

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Dan Grossman

12 years ago

I'm surprised nobody's said the obvious but most important task to securing WordPress:

Keep it up to date!

Most website hacking is completely automated. People are running scanners that check for known vulnerabilities in common software like WordPress by making the same requests to thousands of different domains a day. When they find someone running vulnerable software, they can exploit that to hack the site to add spam links or whatever their goal was.

If you're not always running the newest version of WordPress you are, by definition, vulnerable because virtually all WordPress updates include security fixes. That means the previous version had vulnerabilities to fix -- and publishing the update fixing them points out what the vulnerabilities were to everyone in the world. Now the people writing the vulnerability scanners can figure out how to exploit it and add it to their scanner.

So subscribe yourself to the release notification e-mail list, and when an update comes out, log in to your blog and install it.

WordPress › Download

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lerxtjr

12 years ago

If people would just get away from using the "1-click-install" features of the big web hosts out there, half the battle would be won. Install manually and you don't have to accept all of those default settings that are so easy for a hacker to find and break in.

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Walter Parrish

12 years ago

Originally Posted by lerxtjr

If people would just get away from using the "1-click-install" features of the big web hosts out there, half the battle would be won. Install manually and you don't have to accept all of those default settings that are so easy for a hacker to find and break in.

I think softlicious does a better install than fantastico, but you are correct the manual install is always the best.

I was surprised being a joomla user coming into wordpress at the lack of security info as wordpress is used more as a platform. Even if we snatched the latest wso's I have never heard anyone mention securing wordpress, heck they could have at least said make backups lol

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