Top Security Threats to WordPress Websites in 2021
Top Security Threats to WordPress Websites in 2021
WordPress websites are progressively being tainted with malware from pirated themes and plugins, according to a new report on WordPress security.
Security firm Wordfence published a report on dangers and attacks focusing on WordPress websites, with information gathered from the 4 million customers that have its software installed.
The significant dangers facing WordPress websites fall into three classes:
- Malware from pirated themes and plugins
- Malicious login attempts
- Vulnerability exploits
Here’s an outline of key features from the report.
Malware from Pirated Themes and Plugins
The most far reaching threat to WordPress security is malware from pirated (nulled) themes and plugins.
Wordfence identified more than 70 million malicious files on 1.2 million WordPress sites in the previous year. More than 17% of all infected sites had malware from a nulled plugin or theme.
The WP-VCD malware was the most widely recognized danger to WordPress, counting for 154,928 or 13% of all tainted websites in 2020.
When a plugin or theme is pirated its license checking features are disabled or removed, which makes it simple for hackers to acquire backdoor access.
The most ideal approach to safeguard your WordPress site against this kind of attack is to buy your plugins and themes authentically and keep them updated.
If your financial plan doesn’t allow the purchase of a premium theme then a free option from a respectable supplier is the most secure choice.
Malicious Login Attempts
Wordfence recognized (and blocked) more than 90 billion malicious login attempts from more than 57 million unique IP addresses. That is a rate of 2,800 attacks each second targeting on WordPress websites.
These attempts are said to include credential stuffing attacks using lists of stolen credentials, dictionary attacks, and conventional brute-force attacks.
WordPress site owners can shield themselves from malevolent login attempts by setting up multifaceted authentication. This will guarantee nobody can get in without a password and a special code only you have access to.
Vulnerability Exploits
As per the report from Wordfence, there were 4.3 billion attempts to exploit vulnerabilities from over 9.7 million special IP addresses in 2020.
The 5 most common attacks throughout the year include:
- Directory Traversal: Made up 43% of all vulnerability exploit attempts (1.8 billion attacks).
- SQL Injection: Made up 21% of all exploit attempts (909.4 million attacks).
- Malicious file uploads: Made up 11% of all exploit attempts (454.8 million attacks).
- Cross-Site Scripting(XSS): Made up 8% of all attempt (330 million attacks).
- Authentication Bypass vulnerabilities: Made up 3% of all exploit attempts (140.8 million attacks).
All 4 million websites followed as a component of this report experienced at least one of each the above exploit attempts.
WordPress site owners can ensure themselves against vulnerability exploits with a firewall.
For additional tips on keeping your WordPress site secure kindly allude to the assets in the following section.
How to Keep Your WordPress Site Secure
For up-to-date advice on keeping your WordPress site secure see this guide several months ago published by CodeLedge:
How to Protect a WordPress Site from Hackers
New WordPress vulnerabilities are uncovered each day. Stay stuck to Montti’s coverage as he’s frequently first to break the report about the most recent threats and how to remain safe.
Source: Wordfence
We at CodeLedge, offers the Sweden’s best WordPress development services. Our WordPress developers are very professional to develop unique, efficient and light weight websites for every type of business. Email us at hi@codeledge.net or get a quote from here.
