Common WordPress Attacks and Vulnerabilities
Posted: Wed Jan 29, 2025 5:10 am
Learn about the main attacks targeting possible WordPress vulnerabilities and learn how to ensure greater security for your website.
A recurring theme here on the blog, attacks on WordPress through the exploitation of certain types of vulnerabilities have become increasingly common.
WordPress is the largest content management system in the world – more than 40% of websites on the internet use WordPress, according to W3Techs . And like any popular system, it is a constant target for malicious hackers.
Despite being a secure and constantly updated system, it is not latvia number dataset to potential security flaws. After all, security does not depend only on WordPress, but also on users and hosting.
Therefore, the secret to keeping WordPress secure is to be aware of possible attacks and vulnerabilities.
This way, you can prevent unforeseen events that could cost you all your work.
Read on to learn more about it!
illustration of a thief behind a laptop; in front, the text WordPress Vulnerabilities
Index
Brute Force Attacks: Login Security
How to secure WordPress login?
DoS and DDoS attacks
How to protect WordPress from DoS and DDoS?
Hotlinking
How to protect WordPress from hotlinking?
Malware
How to protect WordPress from malware?
Negative SEO and Spam SEO
Case: Website damaged by Spam SEO
How to protect WordPress against SEO attacks?
Cross-site scripting
How to protect WordPress from XSS?
SQL Injection Attacks
How to protect WordPress from SQL Injection?
Poorly defined user roles
How to protect WordPress from hacked user accounts?
Hacked plugins and themes
How to protect WordPress from hacked plugins and themes?
Ask your questions
Receive posts in your email
Brute Force Attacks: Login Security
Unauthorized logins, or brute force attacks, are attempts to breach an internet access.
The attacker typically uses a bot to test numerous username and password combinations until, through luck or persistence, they manage to find the correct combination and access protected information.
Keep in mind!
Did you know that choosing the wrong hosting can reduce your Google score, cause slowness and even leave your website vulnerable to hacks and viruses?
Click here and find out more !
It may seem like hard work, but it is actually one of the easiest techniques when used on people who use very weak passwords.
This is why WordPress has a password strength meter: to help users create less vulnerable passwords .
How to secure WordPress login?
Never use the usernameadmin(and if there is a user with that name in your WordPress, delete it immediately). Instead, create a more elaborate username – it can be your full name (with capital letters and spaces), or a random word (i.e. almost like a second password);
Create really strong passwords . Don't use something that's easy to remember, like your birthday or a word that makes sense to you, because that just makes life easier for hackers. Use a strong password generator and a password manager so you don't have to memorize them;
Change the login address . Use the WPS Hide Login plugin to customize your login URL to make the addresses /wp-login.phpinaccessible /wp-admin. Finally, do not place links to the new login address on your website.
DoS and DDoS attacks
A DoS ( Denial of Service ) attack , like DDoS ( Distributed Denial of Service ), consists of overloading a server.
The difference between one and the other is that the first is made from one point (a single computer, for example), while the second is made from multiple points (that is, it is more powerful).
In this type of attack, the hacker sends a large amount of traffic to your website until your server cannot handle the load.
A recurring theme here on the blog, attacks on WordPress through the exploitation of certain types of vulnerabilities have become increasingly common.
WordPress is the largest content management system in the world – more than 40% of websites on the internet use WordPress, according to W3Techs . And like any popular system, it is a constant target for malicious hackers.
Despite being a secure and constantly updated system, it is not latvia number dataset to potential security flaws. After all, security does not depend only on WordPress, but also on users and hosting.
Therefore, the secret to keeping WordPress secure is to be aware of possible attacks and vulnerabilities.
This way, you can prevent unforeseen events that could cost you all your work.
Read on to learn more about it!
illustration of a thief behind a laptop; in front, the text WordPress Vulnerabilities
Index
Brute Force Attacks: Login Security
How to secure WordPress login?
DoS and DDoS attacks
How to protect WordPress from DoS and DDoS?
Hotlinking
How to protect WordPress from hotlinking?
Malware
How to protect WordPress from malware?
Negative SEO and Spam SEO
Case: Website damaged by Spam SEO
How to protect WordPress against SEO attacks?
Cross-site scripting
How to protect WordPress from XSS?
SQL Injection Attacks
How to protect WordPress from SQL Injection?
Poorly defined user roles
How to protect WordPress from hacked user accounts?
Hacked plugins and themes
How to protect WordPress from hacked plugins and themes?
Ask your questions
Receive posts in your email
Brute Force Attacks: Login Security
Unauthorized logins, or brute force attacks, are attempts to breach an internet access.
The attacker typically uses a bot to test numerous username and password combinations until, through luck or persistence, they manage to find the correct combination and access protected information.
Keep in mind!
Did you know that choosing the wrong hosting can reduce your Google score, cause slowness and even leave your website vulnerable to hacks and viruses?
Click here and find out more !
It may seem like hard work, but it is actually one of the easiest techniques when used on people who use very weak passwords.
This is why WordPress has a password strength meter: to help users create less vulnerable passwords .
How to secure WordPress login?
Never use the usernameadmin(and if there is a user with that name in your WordPress, delete it immediately). Instead, create a more elaborate username – it can be your full name (with capital letters and spaces), or a random word (i.e. almost like a second password);
Create really strong passwords . Don't use something that's easy to remember, like your birthday or a word that makes sense to you, because that just makes life easier for hackers. Use a strong password generator and a password manager so you don't have to memorize them;
Change the login address . Use the WPS Hide Login plugin to customize your login URL to make the addresses /wp-login.phpinaccessible /wp-admin. Finally, do not place links to the new login address on your website.
DoS and DDoS attacks
A DoS ( Denial of Service ) attack , like DDoS ( Distributed Denial of Service ), consists of overloading a server.
The difference between one and the other is that the first is made from one point (a single computer, for example), while the second is made from multiple points (that is, it is more powerful).
In this type of attack, the hacker sends a large amount of traffic to your website until your server cannot handle the load.