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

Gatekeeping with TCP wrappers


TCP wrappers are a tidy tool helping to secure network services sitting on open ports where just anyone can try to hack in.

What they do is restrict access to localhost, specific hostnames, or IP addresses and are commonly used, for example, for FTP and POP. They're no substitute for a firewall but, instead, secure ports, generally used for administration that, otherwise, are open to all.

Take the example of SSH which we use to tunnel into the server. Ideally you would set up authentication keys to secure the port but, sometimes, that's not practicable.

Adding a simple directive to a couple of files, the TCP wrapper takes immediate effect.

Open up the deny file:

sudo nano /etc/hosts.deny

Add a line:

Open up the allow file:

sudo nano /etc/hosts.allow

Add a line:

Following the colon in the allow file is the IP to be authorized. You can add a series of IPs, comma or space-separated, else use an IP subnet or hostnames.

Before the colon is the name of the daemon for which to...