WordPress is by far the most popular content management system (CMS). Well over 40 percent of all websites worldwide are based on WordPress. However, this popularity also has its downsides: It makes the CMS an attractive target for cyber attacks. In addition, the major strengths of WordPress - its flexibility and modular structure - mean that WordPress tends to be quite insecure.

In this article, you can find out what WordPress security vulnerabilities there are in general, what the most important gateways for hackers are and what you should look out for to close the vulnerabilities. Fortunately, most known WordPress security problems are quite easy to get under control.

1. security vulnerability in the WordPress core

WordPress consists of a core software, the core, as well as various plugins and themes. The WordPress core itself is constantly being developed and released - including security updates. The greatest danger with regard to the core software lies with the users themselves: For many, a WordPress update is long overdue, whether due to incompatible plugins and themes, ignorance or lack of time. Only just under 46 percent of all WordPress installations are currently running the latest version 6.2.

✅ The solution: Use the latest version of WordPress.

The WordPress security team continuously checks the WordPress code for critical vulnerabilities. These are fixed as soon as they are discovered. The WordPress developers usually work very reliably and quickly - especially when it comes to critical errors. Only a fraction of all WordPress security vulnerabilities are therefore due to errors in the core. So if you always work with the latest version of WordPress and carry out updates promptly, you can protect yourself quite reliably against hackers who exploit security vulnerabilities in outdated WordPress versions.

2. security problems due to plugins and themes

In practice, plugins and themes are one of the favorite points of attack for hackers. Sucuri analyses from 2022 show that 36% of all hacked websites had at least one vulnerable plugin or theme installed. What's more, there are currently more than 60,000 extensions available for the open source platform on wordpress.org alone. The probability that cybercriminals will find some plugins with a gap in the code is therefore high. This gap is then exploited to open the doors to the backend of your website for SQL injections, cross-site scripting (XSS) or malware, for example.

✅ The solution: To avoid security gaps caused by plugins and themes, you should consider several things at once:

• Keep plugins and themes up to date: What applies to the WordPress core naturally also applies to the extensions. Outdated software is one of the most common reasons why WordPress websites fall victim to cross-site scripting, malware and the like. Therefore, make sure that you always have the latest version of plugins installed. Read our article on (automatic) WordPress plugin updates.
• Only install trustworthy plugins and themes: The WordPress repository is a relatively secure source for plugins and themes. The plugins listed there are checked for errors before they are made available. In addition, reputable and well-maintained plugins are most likely to have any security vulnerabilities quickly closed. In principle, however, all kinds of developers can provide plugins and themes for the WordPress community. It's better to stay away from small WordPress plugins and themes from unknown third-party providers.
• Delete unused themes and plugins: Only use the plugins that are absolutely necessary for your website. If you no longer need them, you should not only deactivate plugins, but uninstall them directly. The same applies to themes.

3. the WordPress login as a vulnerability

A large proportion of WordPress hacks consist of "blunt force" attacks on the front door, i.e. against your wp-admin site. So-called brute force attacks are used to try to access your WordPress login information (or the data for FTP and hosting). The method itself is quite primitive, but still effective if the protection is poor: Basically, the attacker:s keep guessing until they find the right combination of username and password. The whole thing can be automated very easily. If the password is weak or the login area is not protected, a brute force attack can either lead to a successful login - or paralyze your servers due to the sheer number of login attempts.

✅ The solution: To prevent hackers from obtaining the key to your website in a brute force attack, there are three ways that are best combined:

• Use strong passwords: Sounds banal, but it has a big impact and is actually mandatory anyway. Brute force attacks are fairly simple, basically just a guess. A strong password with upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters can ensure that an attack comes to nothing. In addition, two-factor authentication makes sense (this is already standard with Raidboxes, for example).
• Limit login attempts: You can limit the number of logins to your WordPress website. This prevents countless failed login attempts from paralyzing your website. An IP is then blocked for a certain period of time after a few failed attempts. With the next forced timeout, the blocking period becomes successively longer - and the attack increasingly useless. Such protection can be retrofitted using plugins (e.g. Login Lockdown). If you host WordPress websites (or e-commerce stores) with Raidboxes, you are directly equipped with extra brute force protection. Using the RB Login Protector, you can define in your box exactly after how many login attempts and for how long the lockdown should take effect.
• Blacklisting: There are servers in certain countries that are particularly prone to cyberattacks. You can put the relevant IP addresses on a "blacklist" and exclude them from accessing your website to prevent attacks. If the regions do not belong to your target group, this can make perfect sense. You can either create the blacklist yourself on the server side or implement it using a suitable security plugin.

4 Shared hosting as a gateway

Hosting also plays a not insignificant role when it comes to WordPress security. Shared hosting in particular can affect your website - through the so-called bad neighbor effect: With shared hosting, several websites "live" on one server and also share the IP address.

For example, if it is blacklisted because another website on your server was affected by spamming, this can also have a negative impact on you and your business. You don't even have to be affected by hacking yourself.

In addition, in rare cases it can happen that there are no longer enough resources available on the server if another website is involved in a DDoS attack, for example. At least if the resources are not properly limited by the shared hoster. The result: overloaded servers on which your website is no longer stable at times.

✅ The solution: Rely on reliable managed WordPress hosting.

WordPress hosting, where you no longer share your server with other websites, provides an extra dose of security. With hosters that specialize in WordPress, you also benefit from a team of WordPress experts and fast support in the event of a problem.

If you rely on secure WordPress hosting from Raidboxes, you are protected against WordPress security vulnerabilities by the following measures, among others:

• When you create a box (i.e. a new WordPress website), you must enter a strong password.
• The RB Login Protector switches to your WordPress login area and "blacklists" IP addresses that repeatedly try to log in with false data. This protects you against brute force attacks.
• The WP Session Eraser deletes the WordPress sessions of all your users from the database after a period of time specified by you. This allows you to remain GDPR-compliant and store as little data as possible.
• The XML-RPC interface is blocked by default. This means that it does not provide a starting point for direct hacker attacks when it is not needed.
• Managed updates (optional), whether for WordPress itself or for your plugins, ensure that your system is always up to date.

In addition, countless server-side measures ensure maximum protection without you having to worry about it yourself.

Extra protection: ensure security with a plugin for WordPress

As with almost everything, WordPress also offers numerous security plugins that you can use to protect your website from threats. This can be a useful additional measure in some cases - depending on how well your WordPress website is already secured on the hosting side and which other setup you use.

You can find out when a WordPress security plugin is really useful and which features it should have in our article WordPress Security: How useful are security plugins really? It also provides an overview of the three best security plugins.

Conclusion: Many WordPress security vulnerabilities are easy to close

Overall, there are a number of gateways through which hackers could attack your WordPress website. However, many WordPress security vulnerabilities are relatively easy to close if you know what to look out for. This often doesn't even require an additional plugin or complicated firewalls. This is because most security vulnerabilities in WordPress are not due to technical errors, but to human error. It is therefore much more important to keep your system up to date, use strong passwords and maintain your WordPress regularly. If you keep this in mind and also rely on secure WordPress hosting, you should be well armed against hackers in the future.

Frequently asked questions about WordPress security vulnerabilities

How secure is WordPress?

No CMS is one hundred percent secure, not even WordPress. The modular structure with numerous themes and plugins offers attack surfaces and tends to make WordPress appear insecure. The fact that WordPress is the most widely used CMS in the world also makes it an attractive target. However, the WordPress core itself is quite well secured and receives regular security updates. However, most WordPress vulnerabilities can actually be traced back to a lack of WordPress maintenance and are easy to eliminate.

What are the most common WordPress threats?

The most common hacks against WordPress websites include malware, backdoors, SEO spam, brute force attacks, SQL injections, DDoS attacks and cross-site scripting.

What are zero-day vulnerabilities?

Zero-day vulnerabilities are vulnerabilities that have not yet been discovered and are unknown to the software developer. This means that there is not yet a security update for this type of security problem. As soon as they become known, they can easily be used for widespread attacks.