Book Image

WordPress 3 Ultimate Security

Book Image

WordPress 3 Ultimate Security

Overview of this book

Most likely – today – some hacker tried to crack your WordPress site, its data and content – maybe once but, with automated tools, very likely dozens or hundreds of times. There's no silver bullet but if you want to cut the odds of a successful attack from practically inevitable to practically zero, read this book. WordPress 3 Ultimate Security shows you how to hack your site before someone else does. You'll uncover its weaknesses before sealing them off, securing your content and your day-to-day local-to-remote editorial process. This is more than some "10 Tips ..." guide. It's ultimate protection – because that's what you need. Survey your network, using the insight from this book to scan for and seal the holes before galvanizing the network with a rack of cool tools. Solid! The WordPress platform is only as safe as the weakest network link, administrator discipline, and your security knowledge. We'll cover the bases, underpinning your working process from any location, containing content, locking down the platform, your web files, the database, and the server. With that done, your ongoing security is infinitely more manageable. Covering deep-set security yet enjoyable to read, WordPress 3 Ultimate Security will multiply your understanding and fortify your site.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
WordPress 3 Ultimate Security
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Revisiting the htaccess file


In case you were asleep, we've so far used htaccess files for some cunningly clever stuff:

  • Adding an authentication layer to wp-admin

  • Protecting the wp-content and wp-includes directories

  • Preventing directory browsing

  • Cloaking the wp-login.php page

  • Denying access to the wp-config.php file

There's a shed load more we can do with htaccess. We'll focus on its security functions.

Note

You can have an htaccess file in any folder to set rules for that directory tree.

Or, specify files or sub-folders from the WordPress root directory htaccess.

Sub-folders can have overrules in their htaccess files.

Got root user access? Instead use the httpd.conf file for faster pageload.

Blocking comment spam

This won't prevent all the junk, but it sure helps with the bot-automated variety:

#kill spam, and swear at it too
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .wp-comments-post\.php*
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !.*somesite.com.* [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT...