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Web applications

Web application. A web application is application software that runs on a web server, unlike computer-based software programs that are run locally on the operating system of the device. Web applications are accessed by the user through a web browser with an active network connection.

Read and learn about Umbraco and WordPress.

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WordPress .htaccess security best practices in Apache 2.4.6+

Security?

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?…

Increase WordPress’ memory limit WP_MEMORY_LIMIT properly in wp-config.php

The WordPress memory limit can be increased by the WP_MEMORY_LIMIT variable in wp-config.php. However, I see this done wrong over and over again in WordPress plugins and themes. In a worst case scenario this may even decrease the available amount of memory for WordPress! So be careful with the advice you follow. In this post I show you a correct way of setting WordPress WP_MEMORY_LIMIT and PHP memory_limit settings.

Protect WordPress from brute-force XML-RPC attacks

WordPress XMLPRC

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.

Check WordPress Core files integrity

brown wooden blocks on white surface

Check WordPress integrity and verify WordPress Core files’ md5 checksums against WordPress’ checksums API, using this standalone PHP file. I chose to use a standalone PHP script to check the md5sum of WordPress Core files against the API so you’re not dependent on a possibly hacked WordPress installation. This kind of guarantees the result can be trusted, as opposed to using a WordPress plugin. I think this is a better integrity check of WordPress Core files.

Clear PHP opcode caches before WordPress Updates: ease the updating process

In various hosting environments, WordPress core-, plugin- and theme updates sometimes fail because of enabled opcode caches. Popular PHP opcode caches are OPcache, WinCache and APC. This little WordPress Must Use Plugin tries to flush opcode caches. Making your live a bit easier when updating WordPress Core, Plugins and Themes.

Benchmarking WordPress, simple load & speed testing with ApacheBench

ApacheBench, or ab, is a small benchmark utility that comes with Apache. It’s a really simple HTTP load generating tool, ideal for a simple WordPress load & speed test. How fast does your WordPress site respond? How many HTTP requests per second can your server handle? These are questions on which ab can shed some light. Here is how to load test WordPress with ApacheBench.

Tips to speed up WordPress, serve gzip compressed static HTML files

WP-Super-Cache logo

Who said WordPress is slow on Windows Server IIS? Gzip compress and serve WP-Super-Cache or Cache Enabler static HTML files, to supercharge your WordPress blog. Here is how to serve gzip compressed HTML files through Windows Server IIS: create smaller, compressed, static HTML files, that are downloaded faster. This works with WP-Super-Cache and Cache Enabler on IIS!

Optimized WordPress hosting (9+ practical tips)

Your WordPress hosting at Warp Speed - img. credits: Christian Daryanto Limas @ flickr

Optimized WordPress hosting is a subject on which a lot is written about. And therefore, this post is not about where to host your WordPress blog, or who offers the best WordPress hosting. This post is for you developers, what you can do to optimize your WordPress hosting. Or for any other PHP web application for that matter. This post is not about setting up high-availability, fail-over, clustering, IIS versus Nginx versus Apache, RAID 1, 5, 6, 10, different types of storage, and so on. It’s about solving performance issues.

WordPress advisory: Akal premium theme XSS vulnerability

Security?

Over the course of one week I had the opportunity to audit two hacked WordPress websites. I could quickly discover two vulnerabilities: a Cross Site Scripting, or XSS, in a premium WordPress theme Akal, and a Denial-of-Service in an undisclosed newsletter plugin. This post describes the Akal premium WordPress theme XSS vulnerability.

“How we broke PHP, hacked Pornhub and earned $20,000”

This is a very interesting read on how Dario Weißer (@haxonaut), cutz and Ruslan Habalov (@evonide) were able to find a PHP unserialize bug to exploit and gain remote code execution on Pornhub. Pornhub’s bug bounty program is at Hackerone. Instead of actively attacking Pornhub, they took another road and attacked what Pornhub is built upon: PHP.

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