Top 10 WordPress Security Myths
Nowadays in market blogs are made in WordPress only and the huge number of people using it. We think that its very secure and reliable but there are some myths that we should know about the WordPress.
Is #WordPress really insecure for enterprises website? Share on XWordPress Security Myths
Below are some highlighted myths of WordPress which people generally don’t aware.
1. Use of Plugins
WordPress mainly depends on the use of plugins which slows down your application.
Public plugins are made for general purpose use, not for your specific requirement so it installed many unwanted files in your system which Execution require more time than custom written code.
So use of plugin in the project slow down the website which generally users don’t like.
2. Lots of Trash Pages, Posts, Images
WordPress doesn’t have the feature like auto-deletion of the trashes. Nowadays even in mobile phones we or mobile booster apps can delete the trashes which boost up the speed of the device but WordPress does not work like this and because of this only these trashes also takes the spaces in the database which again slow down the web application.
WP Security Tips - Top #10 #WordPress #Security Myth Share on XIn wp-config.php we can enable automatically trash after a certain amount of day or delete permanently without moving trash.
Define Trash After Days:
define( 'EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS', 30 );
Permanent Delete without moving into Trash:
define( 'EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS', 0 );
3. Themes from the wordpress.org
If you think that you installed a theme from the wordpress.org so it will be safe and secure but its not like that because these themes are also made by the programmers who have great ability of this that they also release the security updates just to provide more security in this one so you can think that your last theme was not a completely secure theme.
4. Inactive Theme
If any theme get outdated and you not updated it, it will not make any changes in the execution speed but inactive themes can be a risk for the application.
5. Database Query
WordPress be can slow if there are too many numbers of users visit on your website at a single time or complex or multiple queries got fired on the website sometimes maybe your website will be crash.
6. Not for large Business
WordPress websites we cannot scale up to that much extent which other frameworks provide. WordPress is not for the big business or to make the website like E-commerce, Heavy Database Driven or Enterprises Website but some big business companies Ford Motor Company, the Wall Street Journal, and the United States Department of Health using WordPress
7. Single Admin Login Password
Since every WordPress website have one admin login and password so if at any time anyone got the details of that then in your absence they can log in and they can do the changes in few minutes only, in other words, they can hack your website.
In WordPress, an Admin User can create Subscriber, Author, Editor and Even another Admin User. WordPress is “n” number of Auto Backup Plugin which will take your themes and database back from time to time based on its setting.
8. Can’t be Responsive or Low Quality
Responsive design is the demand for the business. This is true that WordPress has a very low-quality responsive website, but it, not WordPress that make website Worthless, it is what Web Designer and Developer created.
There are many high-quality websites like CNN, Number 10 Downing Street and even Ezeelive Technologies India official company website made in WordPress Platform.
9. Only for Blog
People think that WordPress is only for the blogging purpose but the that was before 10+ years. In these days many beautiful news websites are made by the WordPress only.
Wikipedia states that WordPress is a free and open source blogging tool and a dynamic content management system. So, WordPress is not only for the blogging.
10. WordPress doesn’t provide support
WordPress is open source framework so you will get the lots of support in that many websites are made and also much more in the development phase.
Developers whenever get the errors they post it, later on, you can refer it to the solution so you don’t have to worry about the support with the WordPress. WordPress Community is one of biggest online support community in these days.
How to protect WordPress website from Hackers
Protecting a WordPress website from hackers involves implementing a series of security measures to minimize vulnerabilities and deter potential attacks. Here are some essential steps you can take:
1. Keep WordPress Updated
Ensure that your WordPress core, themes, and plugins are always up to date. Developers frequently release updates that include security patches to address vulnerabilities.
2. Use Strong Passwords
Enforce strong passwords for all user accounts, including administrators, editors, and contributors. Avoid using default or easily guessable passwords. Keep frequently change the password time to time.
3. Remove unused/ inactive Plugins and Themes
Uninstall unused/ unwanted/ inactive plugins from the website and keep the installed plugin regular update. Remove unted installed theme from the wp-content/themes folder.
4. Use SSL/TLS Encryption
Install an SSL/TLS certificate to encrypt data transmitted between the web server and users’ browsers. This protects sensitive information, such as login credentials and payment details, from being intercepted by attackers.
5. Enable Web Application Firewall (WAF)
Set up a WAF to filter and monitor HTTP traffic to your website, blocking malicious requests and protecting against common attacks like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).
6. Regular Backups
Schedule regular backups of your WordPress website, including both files and databases. In the event of a security breach or data loss, you can restore your website to a previous state.
7. Protect the wp-admin, wp-includes and wp-content Directory
First and most important remove 0777 permission in entire website. Restrict file and directory access to the wordpress directory to prevent hackers to inject miscellaneous code into website code. Run following command in SSH terminal of website root directory.
# Set all directories permissions to 755
find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
# Set all files permissions to 644
find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;Remove cached data (If you’re using W3C Total Cache):
rm -rf wp-content/cache/config rm -rf wp-content/cache/object rm -rf wp-content/cache/db rm -rf wp-content/cache/minify rm -rf wp-content/cache/page_enhanced
Restrict the permission of accessing to “wp-config.php”
chmod 640 /var/www/html/wp-config.php
8. Disable file editing
WordPress has a code editor which allows you to edit your site files through your dashboard. This is obviously a useful feature, it’s also a huge liability in terms of hacking. therefore recommend turning it off by simply add the following code into wp-config.php file.
// Disallow file edit define( ‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’, true );
Another way to prevent file editing is by disabling PHP file execution in your /wp-content/uploads/ folders in .htaccess file:
9. Disable Directory Indexing
Prevent directory indexing to stop hackers from browsing the contents of your website directories and discovering potential vulnerabilities.
IndexIgnore *
10. Monitor File Changes
Set up file integrity monitoring to receive alerts when critical files on your WordPress site are modified, added, or deleted unexpectedly.
If you have SSH access to server, sign in and run the following command to see all files that were modified during the last 2 days:
find . -mtime -2 -ls
Or you can specify a specific directory:
find /var/www/html/ -mtime -2 -ls
Or you can change the search to show files modified in the last 10 days:
find /var/www/html/ -mtime -10 -ls
11. Revemo Base64 encoded files
Another useful tool in SSH is ‘grep’. For example, to search for files that reference base64 encoding (commonly used by hackers) you can run the following command:
grep -ril base64 *
This will just list the file names. You can omit the ‘l’ option to see the actual contents of the file where the base64 string occurs:
grep -ri base64 *
Keep in mind that “base64” can occur in legitimate code as well. Before you delete anything, you’ll want to make sure that you are not deleting a file that is being used by a theme or plugin on site. A more refined search could look like this:
grep --include=*.php -rn . -e "base64_decode"
Now that you know how to use ‘grep’, we recommend that you use grep in combination with ‘find’. What you should do is find files that were recently modified, see what was modified in the file and if you find a common string of text like “bad hacker was here” then you can just grep all your files for that text like so:
grep -irl "bad hacker was here" *
Let’s go even deeper! If you clean a lot of infected sites you will start noticing patterns in where malicious code is commonly found. One such place is the uploads directory in WordPress root directory. The command below shows how to find all files in the uploads directory that are not image files.
find /var/www/html/wp-content/uploads/ -type f -not -name "*.jpg" -not -name "*.png" -not -name "*.gif" -not -name "*.jpeg" -not -name “*.webp”
By implementing these measures and staying vigilant against emerging threats, you can significantly reduce the risk of your WordPress website being compromised by hackers.
Free…Free… Support
WordPress is the most famous CMS (Content Management System) for the blogging but it has it also some features which can be useful to make the other websites also.
So we looked at some myths about the WordPress which people don’t know about that. WordPress also has its own advantages, disadvantages and WordPress security myths.
We understand the pain of hacking and loosing the website data. Ezeelive Technologies announced free support on your website to prevention from hacking and will review your website and provide you complete information to secure your website from hackers. Dropout your issue in the comment our team will connect you.
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