Recently, Jeff Starr wrote about blocking IP addresses posting random string comment spam. That post reminded me about my own older post about blocking WordPress comment spammers manually. With just a few manual steps, you create your own little blocklist for WordPress in either a .htaccess or web.config file. Here are the IP addresses I’m currently blocking. Note, this list can get long (loooonnggg).
Disallow direct access to PHP files in wp-content/uploads/
It’s recommended to disallow access to and execution of PHP files in wp-content/uploads folder. Preferably without the use of a security plugin. Blocking access to PHP files in WordPress wp-content/uploads folder is easily achieved with a .htaccess file on Linux Apache, or web.config accesssPolicy in Windows Server IIS, and here is how.
Basic Authentication module for Windows Server IIS 10
Basic Authentication managed HTTP module for IIS 10 with virtual users support. In my pursuit of a basic authentication alternative in IIS, other than the built-in Basic Authentication module or Helicon Ape, I came across Devbridge AzurePowerTools. It’s apparently one of few HTTP managed modules for IIS that enables HTTP Basic Authentication with support for virtual users.
WordPress .htaccess security best practices in Apache 2.4.6+
Since Apache 2.4.6, a new module is used to configure and set up access control for websites: mod_authz_core. This means you have to use a different syntax for allowing or blocking hosts and IP addresses to your website. But unfortunately, old documentation is never updated and people even still write blog posts using that old syntax, leaving you with an unprotected website. Not what you had in mind, now is it?…
Protect WordPress from brute-force XML-RPC attacks
The WordPress XML-RPC API has been under attack for many years. Back in August 2014, WordPress released version 3.9.2, fixing a possible denial of service issue in PHP’s XML processing. There are brute-force amplification attacks, reported by Sucuri, and so on. So, how do you protect WordPress from these xmlrpc.php attacks, optionally still being able to use (some of) its functionality like Jetpack? This post gives you some insights.
SSL in WordPress: how to move WordPress to HTTPS? The definitive guide
Having an SSL certificate in your WordPress is the de-facto standard nowadays, did you know that? Google ranks sites having HTTPS higher in their SERP. But in WordPress, how do you configure an SSL certificate and HTTPS URL? You’ll learn the important steps to move WordPress from http to https in this post.
HackRepair.com’s Bad Bots .htaccess in web.config for IIS
Jim Walker from HackRepair.com posted a 2016 version of his Bad Bots .htaccess on Pastebin. I offered Jim to translate his Bad Bots .htaccess to web.config, to be used with Windows Server IIS. And here it is, learn to protect your WordPress website with this web.config file!
RewriteProxy with .htaccess in IIS
Rewrite and proxy HTTP requests in IIS using a .htaccess. In my case scenario, I had to proxy requests in IIS, because a website was moved from web server A to B, and the DNS wasn’t updated yet. All HTTP requests for the moved website are handled in IIS’ Default Web Site; that’s the wildcard host, and the original host no longer existed there. We needed to match our website and proxy those requests to the new IIS web server. This can either be done using a proxy with URL Rewrite, IIS Application Request Routing (ARR), or a .htaccess file handled by Helicon Ape.
Mod_evasive on IIS
Mod_evasive is a module for Apache and Windows Server IIS (using Helicon Ape). It provides protection and evasive action in the event of an HTTP DoS-, DDoS or brute force attack. Detection is performed by creating an internal dynamic hash table of IP Addresses and URIs, and denies an IP address access to a website if it’s requesting the same page more than 10 times a second. This is configurable.
Huge increase in WordPress xmlrpc.php POST requests
WordPress xmlprc.php DDoS and brute-force attacks. How to identify, block, mitigate and leverage these xmlrpc.php scans, brute-force, and user enumeration attacks on WordPress sites… Secure WordPress xmlprc.php interface and reduce service disruption.
Remove IIS Server version HTTP Response Header
Remove HTTP response headers in Windows Server IIS 10 and ASP.NET because Windows Server IIS loves to tell the world that a website runs on IIS. It does so with the Server header in the HTTP response, as shown below. In this post I’ll show you how to remove response server headers in IIS. You don’t want to give hackers too much information about your servers, heh? ;-).
How to hide the .php file extension with IIS URL Rewrite Module
Sometimes it’s important to remove -or hide- the file extension of scripts you use. Security by obscurity might be that reason, if you don’t want others to know what script language you are using for your website, or for static site hosts. This example will hide the .php extension using IIS URL Rewrite Module, in a ready to use web.config & .htaccess example: extension less URLs in IIS.
WordPress 3.5 on IIS 8.0 is unable to save a web.config file
This website Saotn.org is hosted on Windows Server 2012 with IIS 8.0 with WordPress for a few months now, and everything is running very smooth. And I would never hit this bug because I don’t need to change my permalinks structure, or save any other plugin setting which would want write to a web.config file. One of my colleagues on the other hand, just moved his website to one of our IIS 8.0 web servers and he noticed he couldn’t save his Permalinks structure in the IIS web.config file. This can be pretty annoying ;-) Quick fix attached…
Create your own PHP based Origin Pull CDN
The advantage of having your website content hosted on a Content Delivery Network (CDN) is having your content distributed and stored across the Globe. Utilizing the network of the Content Delivery Network provider. Hosting your WordPress website on a Content Delivery Network is an important WordPress optimization tip. Here is how to create your own Origin Pull CDN with just a few lines of PHP…