This document provides an overview of securing WordPress websites. It discusses securing the local work environment by keeping software updated, using antivirus and firewalls, and locking down the browser. It also covers securing WordPress installations by using strong passwords, two-factor authentication, keeping software updated, and testing sites in a local environment. The presentation aims to educate users on security best practices to protect against hackers and secure their WordPress websites.

1. WORDPRESS SECURITY 101
HACKERS, SCOUNDRELS, AND VILLAINS, OH MY
PRESENTED BY: GARRY MCNEILLY
KOJAC CONSULTING
.

2. PRESENTATION OVERVIEW
You will learn
how to secure
your desktops &
servers
Secure
Word Press
Websites
Basic of
Themes &
plugins
Develop and
test is a local
environment
Basic Of
MySQL and
XAMPP
Best Practices
for securing
your email using
Server Policy
Frame Work

3. SECURE YOUR LOCAL WORKING ENVIRONMENT
Keep your software up to date – windows update on a regular basis
Install antivirus on all computers & servers
keep antivirus up to date
Implement a hardware or software firewall solution when ever
possible

4. ANTI VIRUS, FIREWALLS, MALWARE
Free solutions
www.comodo.com – Firewall and internet security
remove GeekBuddy 24/7 up sell
www.zonealarm.com – Free firewall
http://www.avast.com – Basic antivirus
http://www.avg.com Basic free antivirus

5. ANTI VIRUS, FIREWALLS, MALWARE
Malware is the concealment of
Virus
Trojan Horses
Rootkits
Backdoors
Malware Bytes
http://www.malwarebytes.org
What Is It…
―Today, malware is used primarily
to steal sensitive information of
personal, financial, or business
importance by black hat
hackers with harmful intentions‖

6. SECURE YOUR LOCAL WORKING ENVIRONMENT
Lock Down your Browser
HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox and Chrome extension that encrypts
your communications with many major websites, making your browsing
more secure.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere-node
No Mention of IE…
Keep your Browsers up to date

7. SECURE YOUR LOCAL WORKING ENVIRONMENT
Firefox add on - NoScript Security Suite 2.6.8.5
The best security you can get in a web browser!
Allow active content to run only from sites you trust, and protect yourself
against XSS and Clickjacking attacks.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/
Note It take a little while to configure your sites

8. WHAT HAS MY ISP DONE FOR ME LATELY
Does my ISP notify me of server / database upgrades
Do they lock me out if there are too many login attempts
do they let you know
Are you on a shared server or dedicated server
(Cross Contamination)
- and if so

9. WHAT HAS MY ISP DONE FOR ME LATELY
Are your sites segmented
Do you have one master account for access to all accounts
Own one Own All

10. WHAT HAS MY ISP DONE FOR ME LATELY
Do you have a limitation on your MSQL data base
(how many records can you have) how big can your Database be !!!
Do they offer a Sender Policy Framework for Email
What‘s Technical like Phone | Email | 24/7
or when ever we decide to get back to you

11. WHAT HAS MY ISP DONE FOR ME LATELY
What‘s there Service Level Agreement like (SLA)
Do they offer backup services
What's there data retention policy like

12. TWO STEP AUTHENTICATION
3RD PARTY APPS

13. TWO STEP AUTHENTICATION – DROP BOX
3RD PARTY APPS
1. Sign in to the Dropbox website.
2. Click on your name from the upperright of any page to open your
account menu.
3. Click Settings from the account
menu and select the Security tab,
4. Under the Account sign in section,
next to Two-step verification,
click Enable.

14. TWO STEP AUTHENTICATION
3RD PARTY APPS
Just a few more account that have two step authentication.
LinkedIn – New after they were hacked nearly 6.5 million user
Microsoft Accounts
Wordpress.com
Godaddy.com

15. FTP – DON’T GET ME STARTED !!!
File Transfer Protocol – FTP
It‘s Not Secure and has no encryption of
data
Stop Using It Right Now
The SSH File Transfer Protocol
(also known as Secure FTP and SFTP)
is a better solution.

16. FTP – DON’T GET ME STARTED !!!
You may need to contact your ISP / hosting provider
to activate or
install. You may also need to use different port numbers 21 or 22
Secure FTP also gives you root access to directories and
subdirectories to all account – So be carful when transferring files or
accessing accounts

17. PASSWORDS MANAGEMENT
PASSWORDS VS. PASS PHRASES
Passwords
Pass Phrases
Passwords tend to be really
Phase Phrases tend to be much
common Dictionary words.
Easy to guess / crack
longer and hander to guess /
crack
Longer character set with
Password is a bad password
special characters

18. PASSWORDS MANAGEMENT
Password Example
Your wife name is: Tonya
changed O to zero T0nya
Passphrase Example
MyWifeT0nyaCant_Cook
(Still common but a little harder
to crack)

19. PASSWORDS MANAGEMENT
Add Upper and lower case as well as special
characters
MyW1feT0nyaCant_Cook#@!
And if for some reason your wife needs your
password…..Change it QUICK
MyW1fe_T0nyaIs_A_GrateC00k

20. PASSWORDS MANAGEMENT
www.lastpass.com
can be used on all devices
Auto fill users names & passwords

21. PASSWORDS MANAGEMENT
www.RoboForm.com
https://www.passpack.com
http://keepass.info/
These programs have the ability to generate complex passwords that
are hard to remember unless you are using a password manager

22. WORDPRESS SECURITY

23. WHAT WILL A HACKER GAIN FROM MESSING WITH MY
SITE !!!
$$$ Financial gain $$$
Hackers make money in a few ways‘
Affiliate marking referrals – pay per click
Zero Day exploitations

24. WHAT WILL A HACKER GAIN FROM MESSING WITH MY
SITE !!!
Phama hacks (Viagra) counterfeit drugs,
Change DB | insert Spam | add a backdoor, Redirect URL

25. WHAT WILL A HACKER GAIN FROM MESSING WITH MY
SITE !!!
Site redirections
SEO Poison of your keywords
Access to members ship lists
Ecommerce theft – such as Infusion soft and PayPal
Credit cards information

26. WHAT WILL A HACKER GAIN FROM MESSING WITH MY
SITE !!!
Defacement of site – Script kids just #being shit heads
Install backdoor software – own one own all
Malicious redirect – they make money from Pay Per Click
Injections – Iframe specifically
Identity Theft #juststeelingyourshit

27. WHAT WILL A HACKER GAIN FROM MESSING WITH MY
SITE !!!
• Email compromise allowing for Phishing attacks
• CryptoLocker ransomware attacks
‗The malware encrypts all of the most important files on a victim PC —
pictures, movie and music files, documents, etc. — as well as any files
on attached or networked storage media. CryptoLocker then demands
payment‘

28. HOW DOES THIS AFFECT ME & MY BUSINESS
• Loss of trust with clients
• Loss of business
• Loss of time effort and lots of money to fix your website
• Tarnish your online reputation

29. THIS THREAT IS NOT REAL IS IT
Just a few stats to scare the crap out of you
• 12,000 to 14,000 site per day are blacklisted
• Google documents and issues 5 Million warring's per week

30. DOMAIN NAME MANAGEMENT
Make sure you or your clients
*Domain Name Extortion
own there Domain Name
Setup Auto renewal
Example: www.sitedudes.com
No long term contracts my ass !!!
Add Privacy to your domain if
They did offer a complementary
ass kicking…though
possible – making it harder to
steal

31. WORDPRESS SECURITY
INSTALL REVIEW
Most WP setup out of the box are
configured with
-admin (username)
-password (you create)
You have just help a hacker with ½
the answers to your login by using
admin as a user name

32. WORDPRESS SECURITY
Install Google Authenticator Plugin for
WordPress.
Hackers Now Need
- Your long user name
- Long complex password
- TXT sent to your phone

33. WORDPRESS SECURITY
Create A User name that is at least
15 characters including Upper and
Lower case including special
characters
Password
use a program such at Lastpass to
create a long and complex password

34. WORDPRESS SECURITY
Limit login attempts plugins will help to stop Brute Force attacks by
locking your site after a specific amount of attempts.

35. WORDPRESS SECURITY
Example – Brute Force Attack

36. SO WHAT CAN I DO TO REDUCE MY RISK
• Remove all unused Themes & Plugins
• Monitor your website on a regular basis
• Keep you site up to date
• Change file permission from standard defaults
• Remove user and roles if they are not being used
• Keep your production server tidy – It not a backup server or file server

37. WP USERS & THERE ROLES
Administrator
Editor
Author
Contributor
Subscriber

38. SO IS YOUR SITE UP TO DATE
MAJOR RELEASE VS. POINT RELEASE
WP 3.6 – 3.7 Major Release
Old calls & functions
Core Security flaws
Performance Issues
Core related issues

39. SO IS YOUR SITE UP TO DATE
WP 3.7.1 POINT RELEASE
WP 3.7.1 Point Release
Bug Fix
Security Updates
Images with caption fixed
visual editor fixed
NOTE:
Major and Minor updates still have the
ability to bring your site down or cause
issues.
This is why you should always backup
your production site.
Replicate your site in a test environment
and make sure that there are no errors
and issues.

40. TOOLS TO TEST YOUR SITE
http://sucuri.net/
Software version
Blacklisted
Malware
Malicious javascript
Malicious Iframes
Drive By Downloads
Anomaly detection
IE – only attacks
Suspicious redirects
Spam

41. WORDPRESS SECURITY
So what‘s a Theme ???
Themes will define the look and feel of your site
Theme is a theme that inherits the functionality of another theme, called
the parent theme. Child theme allows you to modify, or add to the
functionality of that parent theme.

42. WORDPRESS SECURITY
A child theme is the safest and easiest way to modify an existing theme,
whether you want to make a few tiny changes or extensive changes.
Instead of modifying the theme files directly, you can create a child
theme and override within.

43. WORDPRESS SECURITY
Responsive Design - Will resize the look and feel for Mobile devices
such as smart phones, tables, netbooks,
Note: when purchasing themes look at the Developers upgrade status
If the theme has not been updates in a while keep looking

44. TIMTHUMB
COMMERCIAL THEMES EXPLOITATION
An image resizing utility called timthumb.php
Bundled in some commercial /free
Remote Code Execution
Themes

45. TIMTHUMB
COMMERCIAL THEMES EXPLOITATION
SQL Injection Vulnerability
Google shows over 39 million results for the script name
If you find it fix it right away
This Themes is still active and a huge problem in the WP community

46. CREATE A TEST ENVIORNMENT
Used to develop or replicate a website in a local environment
Test themes / plugins / applications before they go live
Use a staging environment for testing for virus / defects

47. PLUGINS EXPLAINED
What's a WP Plugging ???
WP plugins are used to add additional functionality to your site.
Including; security, performance, calendars, social media,
Fonts, custom features, site backups,
Before install a plug in make sure its compatible with your version of
WP review the author and make sure they keep up to date with current
WP versions and standards and best practices

48. SOME KICK ASS PLUGINS
Limit login attempts
WP security
Google authentication
DEVEOLPMENT TOOLS
Notepad Plus
Asana.com – used for project management

49. CREATE A TEST ENVIRONMENT
Microsoft
Webmatrix
BitNami
WordPress
local install

50. CREATE A TEST ENVIORNMENT
TOOLS FOR CREATING A LOCAL TEST ENVIORNMENT
Microsoft Webmatrix
http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/
Installing Webmatrix may not work correctly if you have Skype installed that also
used port 80 or any other program that used port 80
It also requires some file modification to move it from test environment to
production

51. CREATE A TEST ENVIORNMENT
Bitnami.com
Simple application deployment from development to production
Bitnami supports Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems,
VMware virtualized environments
You can also use a sub direct on your production website

52. CREATE A TEST ENVIRONMENT
Local development also required software to run the local database.
Xampp - http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
Wamp - http://sourceforge.net/projects/wampserver/
The following two software use localhost for development The package
includes the Apache web server, MySQL, SQLite, PHP, Perl, a FTP

53. CONCLUSION TO THE PRESENTATION
Question & Answers
Contact Info
Garry McNeilly
Kojac Consulting
www.kojac-consulting.com
garry@kojac-consulting.com
Phone: 416-898-9084
WordPress Security 101
.
Hackers, Scoundrels, and Villains, Oh my