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

Control panels and terminals


We use CPs or command line interfaces as assistive tools to apply, among other things, security systems. There are pros and cons for each of these instruments.

Panels are favorable because their GUIs are user-friendly. Sometimes their point-click usability, however, is hampered by restricted options. We saw an example of this with cPanel's weak default of mod_auth_basic for password protection in Chapter 5.

Terminals, CLIs, shells, consoles or whatever else they're called today are favorable, on the other hand, because their options are infinite and they're faster to use. The downside is that, at first (OK, and at first-and-a-half!), they're bewildering.

Safe server access

In Chapter 5, we looked at SSH and its cousin SSL, setting up the terminal with the former and advising about the importance of the latter for when we log into and browse a panel—so that's using https not http. Both methods are secure although there is always the concern of a brute force password...