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

WordPress administration with SSL


Normally when we log into the Dashboard, our credentials are transmitted in plaintext—that's unencrypted—meaning that they are susceptible to packet sniffing. Equally our user session can be intercepted, our cookies hacked, and the site hijacked. Not ideal then.

The best way to shore up this litany of insecurity is by implementing SSL, so that rather than log in and administer the site using http, we use https.

This is certainly not the be-all and end-all of administrative security. There can still be (greatly reduced) risks of cookie stealing and phishing when using shared certificates, and meanwhile, only partial page encryption can result from poorly written, non-SSL-compatible plugins. We shall be addressing this latter concern later on. Nonetheless, this foundation measure can be layered with further safeguards, using a mix of preventative plugins and Apache modules, as we shall see.

SSL for shared hosts

Shared web hosts tend to offer SSL with a choice...