8 Most Common WordPress Security Vulnerabilities & How to Fix Them

1. 8 Most Common WordPress Security Vulnerabilities & How to Fix Them

2. Introduction As of 2022, WordPress is the most popular CMS, powering over 450 million websites. One of the reasons behind its popularity is the fact that it’s open-source. Unfortunately, that popularity comes at a cost. Because anyone can build a plugin or theme, WordPress isn't free from vulnerabilities. In reality, most WordPress security vulnerabilities fall into just a few distinct categories. The good news is, as long as you follow key security good practices, you’ll be safe from most of them.

3. WordPress Plugins and Themes Probably the broadest category is all the vulnerabilities in WordPress themes and plugins. Typically, there are three reasons why a theme or plugin is vulnerable: It’s been poorly designed right from the scratch. It didn’t receive security updates for some time and became vulnerable. Its code has been modified by a third party. This is common for plugins and themes downloaded from unofficial sources. Of course, keeping all your plugins and themes updated manually can be troublesome. Especially if you own more than one WordPress website.

4. WordPress Login Page The next on the list of WordPress security vulnerabilities is its login page Of course, they still need a password - which is the next key WordPress login vulnerability. An easily accessible login page and a password that’s easy to break are a recipe for disaster. How to Secure Your Login Page: Change the wordpress login page address. You can do that with a bit of coding or using a plugin like WPS Hide Login. Force users to verify their login using a separate tool (two-factor authentication). The easiest way to do that is using a plugin such as Two Factor Authentication. It supports the most popular 2FAs from both Apple and Google. Change user IDs to something unique. Never use your email address or generic words such as “admin” as a login ID.

5. Denial of Service Denial of service attacks doesn’t harm your website files or data and it's another type of WordPress security vulnerability. Instead, they aim to flood your website with so much traffic that it crashes the server. The goal? Make your website inaccessible. One of the reasons why DoS attacks are so hard to prevent is that often, they’re performed using many servers. How to Reduce the Risk of DDoS: Use a WordPress security plugin with extra DDoS protection such as Wordfence. Create an SOP outlining what to do in case of an attack. This will help you stay calm and get your site up and running faster. Keep in mind that the latter is more about preventing your site from getting used in a DDoS chain. As such, it won't protect it from getting DDoSed.

6. SQL Database Injections The biggest danger of SQL injections lies in the fact that they’re easy to execute on insecure websites. Thankfully, database injections are one of the easiest WordPress security vulnerabilities to fix. That's if you know what you’re doing, of course: How to Prevent Database Injections: Collect only necessary user input. The fewer input forms you have on your website, the easier it is to keep everything secure. Ensure all your forms validate input data. This prevents users from typing anything they want into the input fields. Scan your site with a tool like WordPress security scanner to check it for SQL injections.

7. Malicious Software (Malware) Malware is one of the most widespread security risks on the Internet. As such, only a small percentage of it is targeting WordPress websites. Often, malware gets “planted” in nulled plugins or themes How to Secure Your Site from Malware: If you have many people working on your website, limit uploading privileges. Never use plugins and themes from unauthorized sources. Perform periodic malware scans using tools such as Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall.

8. Cross-Site Scripting XSS attacks are one of WordPress security vulnerabilities similar to SQL injections. But, rather than trying to access the database, the attacker injects the code into the backend. The goal is to alter your website’s functionality. Of course, that doesn’t mean they’re not as dangerous as SQL injections. What to Do to Prevent XSS Attacks: Keep your plugins, themes, and all WordPress core files up-to-date. Never add WordPress themes and plugins from unknown sources. Deploy a web application firewall (WAF). The easiest way to do that is via a plugin such as Sucuri.

9. Hotlinking to Your Content Not all WordPress security vulnerabilities result in your website getting "hacked". Unlike the other ones, hotlinking relates to the way others share your work. The problem arises when they decide to embed it instead. In this case, you’ll be the one charged for all the bandwidth. The upside is that hotlinking is rarely used to crash your servers and website. Most of the time, it’s used by inexperienced webmasters who don’t understand the consequences. How to Secure Your Content Against Hotlinking Use a WordPress CDN (Content Delivery Network) such as KeyCDN. Enable server-side hotlinking protection. This will depend on whether your website is running on Apache or Nginx. Once you identify hot-linked content, your best bet is to rename the file.

10. The Human Factor We get to one of the most dangerous WordPress security vulnerabilities of all - your team members. Yet, the human factor is often overlooked or its importance is minimized. We’ve already discussed a couple of ways in which your team members can increase your site's security. These include strong passwords, password managers, and keeping website themes and plugins up-to-date. But, there’s more you can do to protect your site: Keep a list of security good practices and ensure all your team members know and apply them. And, of course, don’t forget to lead by example! Create security protocols and SOPs for people to follow - and ensure they’re actually doing this. The SOPs and protocols don’t just help your team members follow the good practices.

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