WordPresssecurityfundamentals

aboutmeSomething

Joseph Herbrandson

Web design and infosec Committed to WordPress and website security since 2008

sucuri security Security Analyst - Cleaning up malware and protecting websites from infection everyday

Website sucuri.net

twitter.com/sucuri_security

facebook.com/SucuriSec

sucuri.net

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Sucurisecurity• Website security Company

• Operate internationally

• platform agnostic (wordpress, joomla, drupal, etc…)

• scan 2 million websites per month

• block 4 million attacks per month

• remediate 400-500 sites per day

• signature/heuristics based

• 24/7 operations

No 0% Threat Rule No such thing as perfect security. If someone REALLY wants in, they will find a way.

0- Day Attacks Brand new attacks using different methods make these impossible to plan for. 0-Day attacks are resolved once it has been studied, and fix has been published.

Not just Wordpress! Security starts with everyday practices. All the wrong moves made off of your website, will still affect things on your website!

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securewpNotes On

Heartbleedchange all passwords! If website uses SSL encryption, most likely it was (or still is) vulnerable.

still vulnerable? Is the heart still bleeding? Check here:

https://filippo.io/Heartbleed/

educate yourself http://heartbleed.com

Public Service Announcemnt…

Who Are They?

Hackersidentities

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Who are these Guys? - It can be anyone good with computers.

- Intelligent and Mischievous; Enterprising and Effective.

Where are they from? Most attacks come from Turkey, Syria, Tunisia, Brazil, Russia, China, and even the United States.

!

Brute Force sql injection ddos social engineering

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what’s going on here…

attacktypes

Hacked?

WhyyouIt’s nothing Personal Most attacks are automated and done on many websites at a time

You're on the list Once you’re a target, you stay a target. Increasing your security is the best way to ask them to LEAVE YOU ALONE

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The

$Billionspam!

Pharma and spam attacks Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra ads, make marketers over 2 BILLION dollars every year from blackhat methods of infecting websites, and redirecting users to websites selling prescription drugs.

!

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Sending a Message

Hacktivists!

The hacktivists Turning your site into a billboard for anarchy and mayhem

PillarsofsecurityYour Security

Frontline Disaster Preventionbackups

Basic Website MaintenanceStaying current

Common Sense PoliciesAccess control

WordPress Intrusion Preparation

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securedbackupsDisaster Prevention

Have a backup plan Playing defensively from the back is your best first line defense.

Stored Remotely Away from your live server, and the clutches of an intruder.

…more than one if possible! The more layers of your backup plan, the less likely it is to fail.

Scheduled and Automated Don’t rely on yourself.

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backupSolutionsOptions for

Vault PressWeb hosting Sucuri Backups

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wordpressUpdatesThe Importance of

Your version is your level of security If your WordPress version is out of date, that is your weak link in the chain. Current version: WordPress 3.9

Major versus Maintenance releases Be quick to upgrade anything that aims to patch, fix or secure a previously released feature. Find all versions at http://wordpress.org/download/release-archive/

At the push of a button… Upgrades are quick and easy, and pose no risk to your content; it only takes a minute!

fear not! downgrading is a simple task If things do not turn out as hoped with your site, you can downgrade easily. See a full tutorial here: http://etuts.org/manually-downgrade-wordpress/

Have an upgrade path Transition between development and live site versions to employ good version management.

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As of February 2014

17%

8%

11%

27%

10%

28%

3.0 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8

A little bit about

passwordsecurityThe tactics Malicious password guessing applications are getting more advanced every day.

easier to crack than you think… Random and incremental crackers can take years, or even centuries.

Dictionary Attacks are drastically changing this process

…Numbers Stop using your dates in your passwords!

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mostusedpassWordsThe web’s

No. Title Ranking Last Year

1 123456 2

2 password 1

3 12345678 3

4 qwerty 5

5 abc123 4

6 123456789 New

7 111111 9

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The following are statistics showing the most used passwords in 2013, documented from lists stolen in major organization security breaches.

passwordmanagersTools of the trade:

Lastpass keePass DashLane

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1Password

Case study

cleanupFtp/sftp File Management Basic file cleanup with FileZilla

WordPress Version Archives https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Versions (Google “wordpress versions”)

Theme Backups Always know where to find a clean copy of your theme

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Infectedsiteinfection: blackhat seo spam injection

Spam is displayed with Javascript turned off. Otherwise it’s hidden!

Infection confirmed at the free Sucuri website scanner: http://sitecheck.sucuri.net

Cleanup

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Cleanup

removeandreplacewp-admin and wp-includes These directories are replaceable for cleanup and downgrading versions

Replace other core files The other core files outside of these two directories can be uploaded to directly replace their counterparts

do not delete wp-config.php or wp-content! These are vital to the functionality of your blog, and cannot be replaced easily, or without a backup.

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Cleanup

removeandreplace pt.2

find your theme Your theme is replaceable if youhaven’t made customchanges

delete your old theme This is the most common placefor infected WordPress files

replace with clean copy Good as new!

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Cleanup

cleansite

cleanup accomplished: Your WordPress site is now spam free!

!

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A healthy dose of…

paranoia

worry about the right things: - Passwords versus Usernames

- Web hosting

- Plugin/Theme origin

- Patching/Updating

- Who your friends are

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websitefirewallcloudproxy web-application firewall

Blocks 100% of known web attacks Constantly patched and updated against everything known on the Internet.

ddos absorbtion Expandable to deal with attacks of all sizes

whitelisting against brute force Stop massive password attacks immediately.

!

http://cloudproxy.sucuri.net/features/

Advanced Protection

anyquestions?