During development of plugins or themes, as well as during deployment of a WordPress site, developers or system administrators may enable debug logs to log any PHP errors that occur. WordPress makes use of the WP_DEBUG constant which is defined in wp-config.php. The constant is…
Author Archives Ian Muscat
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Ian Muscat
Don’t Let a GHOST Vulnerability Haunt Your Systems
This week a new Linux vulnerability called GHOST (CVE-2015-0235) has been published and subsequently patched, including an update to Acunetix, which can now detect the vulnerability in both its online and on-premises forms. While some cited GHOST as being as dangerous as Shellshock or Heartbleed,…
WordPress Security Tips Part 9 – Prevent PHP files from executing
Since WordPress sites need to allow their users to upload new content, WordPress’ upload directory needs to be writable. To such an extent, your wp-contnet/uploads directory should be considered a potential entry point. The biggest potential threat is the uploading of PHP files. WordPress won’t…
WordPress Security Tips Part 8 – Restrict Direct Access to Plugin and Theme PHP files
Allowing direct access to PHP files can be dangerous for a number of reasons. Some plugins and theme files can contain PHP files that are not designed to be called directly because the file would be calling functions that would have been defined in other…
WordPress Security Tips Part 7 – Enabling HTTPS for all logins and wp-admin
Strictly speaking, HTTPS is not a protocol in and of itself, but it is rather HTTP encapsulated in TLS/SSL. TLS, or SSL, as it is commonly referred to, provides websites and web applications with encryption of data being transmitted and authentication to verify the identity…
WordPress Security Tips Part 6 – Disable File Editing
Disable File Editing By default, WordPress allows administrative users to edit PHP files of plugins and themes inside of the WordPress admin interface. This is often the first thing an attacker would look for if they manage to gain access to an administrative account since…
WordPress Security Tips Part 5 – Restrict Access to wp-admin Directory
Password protecting your WordPress admin area through a layer of HTTP authentication is an effective measure to thwart attackers attempting to guess users’ passwords. Additionally, if attackers manages to steal a user’s password, they will need to get past HTTP authentication in order to gain…
WordPress Security Tips Part 4 – Complex Security Keys
Heads up – Depending on your webserver’s configuration, activated plugins and/or themes, the following could break some functionality. It is strongly advised to try out any configuration in a testing/staging environment before changing any configuration on production servers. Complex WordPress Security Keys WordPress makes use…
WordPress Security Tips, Part 3 – Security Configurations
Heads up – Depending on your webserver’s configuration, activated plugins and/or themes, the following could break some functionality. It is strongly advised to try out any configuration in a testing/staging environment before changing any configuration on production servers. Prevent Directory Listing Directory Listing occurs when…