The document outlines a security mindset for developing WordPress sites, highlighting critical aspects such as confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA). It emphasizes the importance of maintaining secure coding practices, managing user roles and capabilities, and implementing defenses against common threats like brute force and injection attacks. Additionally, it provides resources and best practices for ensuring the integrity and availability of WordPress sites.

1. David Brumbaugh • @DavidEBrumbaugh • #Team10Up • www.10up.com

2. David Brumbaugh • @DavidEBrumbaugh • #Team10Up • www.10up.com
A C I A M I N D S E T
P L A N N I N G Y O U R W O R D P R E S S S I T E ’ S S E C U R I T Y ( F O R D E V E L O P E R S )
David Brumbaugh - Web Engineer 10Up
A premiere web design & development consulting service provider,
and a contributor to open platforms like WordPress.

3. 7 0 % O F
W O R D P R E S S
S I T E S
V U L N E R A B L E
O C TO B E R 2 0 1 3 , I N F O R M AT I O N W E E K :
That’s Over 100M Sites
These Vulnerabilities are Preventable

4. I T S H O U L D P E R M E AT E H O W W E C O D E
Security is a Mindset

5. David Brumbaugh • @DavidEBrumbaugh • #Team10Up • www.10up.com
C . I . A Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability

6. W O R D P R E S S
C I A C O D I N G
• ENVIRONMENTAL
FACTORS
• CODE FOR
CONFIDENTIALITY
• CODE FOR INTEGRITY
• CODE FOR AVAILABILITY

7. David Brumbaugh • @DavidEBrumbaugh • #Team10Up • www.10up.com
C O N F I D E N T I A L I T Y
• Personal Information
• Names, Email Addresses
• Customer Information
• Order History
• Sensitive Information
• Payment Information, Passwords, Health Data

8. I F T H E H O S T I S C O M P R O M I S E D - Y O U R C O D I N G D O E S N ' T M AT T E R .
C O N F I D E N T I A L I T Y: H O S T I N G
C U LT I VAT E A G O O D R E L AT I O N S H I P W I T H T H E H O S T. AV O I D “ B L A M E G A M E ” .
W I T H A N E W ( O R L A R G E ) H O S T I U S U A L LY S TA RT T H E S U P P O RT T I C K E T
W I T H : “ I A M A D E V E L O P E R ”

9. David Brumbaugh • @DavidEBrumbaugh • #Team10Up • www.10up.com
C O N F I D E N T I A L I T Y - W O R D P R E S S
Front End vs. Back End
Roles and Capabilities
Built In and Custom
Business Decisions - Purpose of Code
Should Match Responsibilities

10. David Brumbaugh • @DavidEBrumbaugh • #Team10Up • www.10up.com
S TA N D A R D R O L E S
• Super Admin
• Administrator
• Editor
• Author
• Contributor
• Subscriber
S A M P L E C A PA B L I T I E S
• edit_users
• activate_plugins
• delete_others_pages
• upload_files
• edit_posts
• read
U S I N G C A PA B I L I T I E S I N C O D E

11. David Brumbaugh • @DavidEBrumbaugh • #Team10Up • www.10up.com
C U S TO M R O L E S A N D C A PA B I L I T I E S

12. David Brumbaugh • @DavidEBrumbaugh • #Team10Up • www.10up.com
C O D E E X A M P L E S F R O M R E P O S I TO RY
C O N F I D E N T I A L I T Y - W O R D P R E S S
Members (Justin Tadlock)
Eyes Only (Kevin Behrens & Thom Stark)
Restricted Site Access (10Up)
Editorial Access Manager (10Up)

13. P R O T E C T I O N A G A I N S T:
U N A U T H O R I Z E D
O R U N I N T E N D E D
M O D I F I C AT I O N ,
D E L E T I O N ,
O R A D D I T I O N
O F D ATA
A N D / O R P R O G R A M S .
I N T E G R I T Y

14. David Brumbaugh • @DavidEBrumbaugh • #Team10Up • www.10up.com
W P I N T E G R I T Y T H R E AT S
• Brute Force Attacks
• Another computer “guesses” username/password
• Username or password is intercepted (email)
• Injection Attacks
• Another computer exploits failure to comply with
best practices by injecting malicious code.

15. I N T E G R I T Y - W O R D P R E S S C O R E A D VA N TA G E S
• Open Source
• Thousands of Eyes
• Can Audit / Inspect
• YOU Should Inspect It
• https://make.wordpress.org/core/reports/
• Solid Organization Committed to Security
• Built In Security Functions (Only work if used)
• Version Updates - Automatic for Security Related,
Can (usually should) be automated
• You Should Push Security Updates ASAP

16. I N Y O U R T H E M E S
A N D P L U G I N S
• Update Procedures (i.e.
WordPress.org Repository)
• Best Practices:
• Input Validation and
Sanitization
• Validate and Escape
Output
• Beware Feature Bloat
I N T E G R I T Y

17. B R U T E F O R C E D E F E N S E
• Check for Bad Usernames (admin,
administrator etc.)
• Captcha - Advantages and
disadvantages
• Enforce Strong Passwords
• Secure Password Delivery
• Don’t Email Passwords
• Use One Time Secret
I N T E G R I T Y

18. I N J E C T I O N D E F E N S E S
U S E B U I LT- I N E S C A P I N G , VA L I D AT I O N A N D S A N I T I Z I N G F U N C T I O N S
I N T E G R I T Y
Input Validation

19. I N J E C T I O N D E F E N S E S
U S E B U I LT- I N E S C A P I N G , VA L I D AT I O N A N D S A N I T I Z I N G F U N C T I O N S
I N T E G R I T Y
Sanitizing: Cleaning User Input

20. I N J E C T I O N D E F E N S E S
U S E B U I LT- I N E S C A P I N G , VA L I D AT I O N A N D S A N I T I Z I N G F U N C T I O N S
I N T E G R I T Y
Escaping: Securing Output
Why???

21. I N J E C T I O N D E F E N S E S
U S E B U I LT- I N E S C A P I N G , VA L I D AT I O N A N D S A N I T I Z I N G F U N C T I O N S
I N T E G R I T Y
Escaping: Securing Output
How???

22. David Brumbaugh • @DavidEBrumbaugh • #Team10Up • www.10up.com
• A L L P L U G I N S / T H E M E S R U N AT T H E S A M E P E R M I S S I O N L E V E L
• S O M E O T H E R P L U G I N C A N M A K E Y O U R S V U L N E R A B L E
• G I T A U T O M AT I C A L LY I N C L U D E S I N T E G R I T Y C H E C K I N G
• C O N S I D E R A “ C A N O N I C A L ” F I L E I N T E G R I T Y S O U R C E :
http://www.sitepoint.com/monitoring-file-integrity/
• S E A R C H P L U G I N R E P O S I T O RY F O R :
“ S E C U R I T Y M O N I T O R I N G ”
A N D / O R “ F I L E I N T E G R I T Y M O N I T O R I N G ”
F I L E & D ATA I N T E G R I T Y

23. Y O U R W O R D P R E S S S I T E
S H O U L D B E AVA I L A B L E
TO Y O U R C U S TO M E R S ,
U S E R S ,
A D M I N I S T R ATO R S
A N D C O N T E N T C R E ATO R S
W H E N T H E Y N E E D I T.
AVA I L A B I L I T Y

24. • O F T E N A F U N C T I O N O F I N T E G R I T Y
• AT TA C K E R L O C K S U S E R S O U T
• D D O S L A U N C H E D F R O M
C O M P R O M I S E D W P S I T E S I N
2 0 1 3
• W O R K W I T H T H E H O S T
• P E R F O R M A N C E
• O P T I M I Z AT I O N ( P R O F I L E )
• C A C H E I N G
• A S S E T M A N A G E M E N T ( C D N )
AVA I L A B I L I T Y

25. David Brumbaugh• @DavidEBrumbaugh • #Team10Up• www.10iup.com/cia-biz
C . I . A . R E S O U R C E S
• developer.wordpress.org
• codex.wordpress.org
• Sanitizing Input
• Escaping Output
• Open Web Application Security Project
• owasp.org
• CERT - Computer Emergency Readiness Team
• http://www.us-cert.gov
• Subscribe to Email Alerts
• Filter your inbox by sender, WordPress

26. David Brumbaugh • @DavidEBrumbaugh • #Team10Up • www.10up.com
• P R E V I O U S LY M E N T I O N E D P L U G I N S
( W O R D P R E S S . O R G )
• B E S T P R A C T I C E S
• h t t p s : / / 1 0 u p . g i t h u b . i o / E n g i n e e r i n g - B e s t - P r a c t i c e s /
• O N E T I M E S E C R E T: h t t p s : / / s e c r e t . 1 0 u p . c o m /
M O R E C . I . A . R E S O U R C E S - F R O M 1 0 U P

27. David Brumbaugh • @DavidEBrumbaugh • #Team10Up • www.10up.com
Q U E S T I O N S ?