10 Common WordPress Vulnerabilities You Need to Know About

WordPress is a very useful CMS (Content Management Service) that is used by millions of businesses around the world to host their websites. Therefore, it is a regular target of hackers and other perpetrators who can exploit the WordPress Vulnerabilities. Hence, it is quite beneficial to familiarize yourselves to the various threats that WordPress faces.

It is important to note that WordPress has various checks and measures in place to prevent the attack from succeeding. However, there is always something that you can do at your end that can further the cause of protection of data.

The Importance of Securing Your Website

It is very crucial to secure your websites and associated accounts from WordPress Vulnerabilities. You stand to lose all the data of your business that was hosted on WordPress in case that any infiltration by the hackers is successful . This is an unfortunate event and recovery of the lost data is not guaranteed.

Various Common WordPress Vulnerabilities

As we discussed above, WordPress is not immune to vulnerabilities. We have curated a list of 10 most common ones and some things that you may probably do to prevent them. These are:

• Outdated Version of WordPress: Previous outdated versions of WordPress are not up to date with recent security frameworks and protocols. You should ensure that you are on the latest version of WordPress and keep track of all updates and security patches.

• Insecure Plugins: Plugins and themes are widely used in WordPress to enhance the user experience. But, any oversight in their source code can introduce vulnerabilities. Therefore, choose only the plugins that are reputable and trusted by you.

• Weak User Credentials: Easy to crack user credentials are the one of the oldest ways a hacker can gain access to your website. The passwords can be cracked using brute force attacks. However, it can be prevented easily by using a strong and unique password.

• Cross Site Scripting: or XSS WordPress vulnerabilities can be exploited by the hackers to inject the websites with malware possibly compromising the accounts or spreading it. Insecure plugins are responsible for these vulnerabilities.

• SQL Injection: These attacks happen when the hacker introduces a malicious code into an sql query allowing them to manipulate databases. To prevent this, implement proper input sanitization methods.

• Fake Cross Site Request: These attacks occur when hackers manipulate the user to perform actions without realizing the outcome. WordPress already has protection against these but poorly coded plugins may facilitate an attack.

• Distributed Denial of Service Attacks: The attacker can flood the servers to your website by initiating large amounts of ping requests. This results in the servers being inaccessible. 

• SEO Spams: The hackers can target the best performing webpages and inject spam ads and malicious keywords which can affect your business adversely.

• XML-RPC Vulnerabilities: XML-RPC is a feature that allows remote connections to WordPress. Disable XML-RPC if not needed or use security plugins to restrict its usage.
•  HTTPS Certificate: Your website needs to have a HTTPS SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. This is a protocol that encrypts all the visitor data so that the hackers cannot decode it even after they intercept it. Contact a hosting provider that facilitates this service.

These are the common WordPress Vulnerabilities that you need to know. Make sure you have the prevention and defense mechanisms in place while hosting your website.

Conclusion

In this article we mentioned the 10 common WordPress Vulnerabilities you and your business may face. Protect yourself from these hackers and ensure that your business has no downtime.