Important Word Press reminder

[greg8872]

Just a reminder, if you are using WordPress, make sure you at least once a month, if not once a week apply any updates to the core, plugins and/or themes.

Also, if you are not using a plugin or theme, not only deactivate it from the site, remove the files and folders from the server. In the root of your wordpress install, after every update look for "readme.html" and DELETE IT, it tells hackers what version you are running. (try it, go to http://mydomain.com/readme.html if you have WP)

I just came across a WP site, that is version 3.2.1 (current is 3.5) that doesn't have any extra plugins or themes installed, yet it was hacked. How do I know what was installed? Part of the hack was a pretty powerful hack script that let me view all files on the account, which means if I wanted to, I could have also looked at database login and fully access the site's database, all from within the SINGLE hack file on the server.

This tool not only lets you read, but also lets you write anywhere that a regular script file can write to (if you are on a cPanel environment, the default is any file on your user account, INCLUDING email still sitting on the server.) And it does have a nice built in tool to find ALL writeable files and directories that it can.

So yes, it is easy to set up, just keep it cleaned and updated. If you have SSH access and know how to use it, right before you do any updates, run a command that will list any .php file modified since the last time you ran it. Look for anything you don't recognize and check it out!!!

Remember, there are sites out there that list what vulnerabilities are on each version of WP and the popular plugins and they know what to look for (ie, the readme.html I mentioned earlier).

And if you are hacked, remember, you have to check most everything on your account, not just where you found the hacked files.

-Greg

[greg8872]

I'll try to remember to post to this thread any updates when I apply them...

Current version if now 3.5.1 which includes some fixes to some security vulnerabilities.

[greg8872]

A good blog post by a friend of mine:

Should you upgrade WordPress?
February 19, 2013 by Tim Priebe

http://www.tandswebdesign.com/2013/0...ade-wordpress/

My personal comment on Tim's article:
It is better to have a WP install that breaks from an update and have to fix it than to sit with an exploitable copy and then your ISP shut you down for send hundreds of spam of having a phishing page placed on your site you don't know about.

[PaperCutter]

good tips, thanks!

[greg8872]

Still at version 3.5.1, but wanted to let those who use WordPress know about the following...

Huge attack on WordPress sites could spawn never-before-seen super botnet

The [hackers] are using more than 90,000 IP addresses to brute-force crack administrative credentials of vulnerable WordPress systems

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013...-super-botnet/

So if you haven't lately, make sure you are up to date on everything, and anything you don't need removed, Make sure you have strong passwords on all WP user accounts (as well as your hosting account logins)

PS, if you have trouble making up stong passwords, when I have to change a bunch, here is what I use... http://www.pctools.com/guides/passwo...word_generator

[newguy123]

Thank you sir.

[jrs.landscaping]

Thank you