My WordPress Test Site Got Hacked

I am sure you’ve heard about the “scandal” in which millions of WordPress sites got “defaced” by those pesky hackers. As it turns out, according to reports from leading security companies, it wasn’t particularly hard to pull off either.

WordPress introduces a REST API which allows you (and others) to do all kinds of wizardry remotely. Apparently, that included the option to edit all your posts and pages without providing any kind of credentials. Great job, WordPress!

With millions of people being “hacked”, of course my test website couldn’t miss out. You see, I have WordPress sites in all sorts and shapes that I keep up to date. Personal blog. Work websites. Fun blogs. However, there are also my “test blogs”, which I use to test plugins for WordPress. I also have those kind of sites for Joomla, but that’s another story.

Most of those sites are hosted on Siteground, but one is hosted on a server I shall not name. One where updates don’t happen automatically, and WAF’s are non-existent.

Well, my friends, that website got “hacked”. The reason I keep writing “hacked” is because alledgedly it takes nearly zero knowledge or effort to pull it off. You just need to know about the exploit, do two minutes of work and you can go crazy.

Which they did. The nice Syrian Peshmerga message left a message stating that ISIS sucks and that they’re going to do stuff. I’m guessing it’s related to shooting them. There was also the online pharmacy that wanted to promote some sort of products.

In my case, no damage was done. This is a test site. I don’t update it, because the site is a “throwaway” site. If something is broken, I’ll just start over. There’s the fair expectation that something WILL go wrong. Seeing the REST API hack in action on that site wasn’t scary, it was more of a “Ahah, it’s that easty?” moment.

However, can the same be said about those other sites? How about your sites? Can you afford to have your website defaced? Probably not. It would be bad for business.

That’s why you need to make sure your websites are up to date. And educate yourself on what to do when you DO get hacked. To help you with that, here’s a short and sweet strategy guide.

How not to get hacked

  1. Keep Your WordPress site up to date. Or, have someone else do it for you. Our friends over at Siteground allow you to enable automatic updates. If I’m not wrong – and I often am – they offer to enable this by default. The feature is super easy – once a new version is released Siteground will roll it out for you. Alternatively, some “Installers” like Installatron also roll out automatic updates. Of course, you could do it all manually. Assuming you’ve picked up on the news that an update is released. Unlike Joomla, WordPress doesn’t send reminders that a new version is available.
  2. Make sure you’re using quality web hosting. It’ll prevent you from most server side exploits. And if your hosting company is *really* good they’ll have rules and checks in place to prevent common exploits, like (again) our friends over at Siteground have in place.
  3. Don’t install shady plugins. Or themes. That’s an open invitation to be hacked. And those “cracked” versions of ExpensivePlugin? Yeah, that’s not a good idea either.
  4. If your website is technically sound, make sure that *you* aren’t the weakness. If your password is easy to crack, change it. Websites like HaveIBeenPwned can tell you if you’ve been part of security breaches. That can lead to a big “Oh, shit” moment when you were using the same password everywhere. Also, make sure to enable two-factor authentication.

How to recover from being hacked

  1. Restore your back-ups. What’s that? You didn’t make any, and assume your host is making them for you? While that might be true in some cases, that is NOT a safe bet to make. Setup your own backup tool, like Akeeba Backup or Vaultpress, an configure it. Make backups to more than one location. AND TEST YOUR BACKUPS
  2. Audit your website. Do you know how they got in your website? Then you probably have no idea how big the damage really is. If your website is used professionally, and your income depends on it, consider hiring an expert who knows what he’s doing. Unfortunately, that excludes  most of the $5 freelancers from a certain continent that “claim to be expert in Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, Magento, Grav, Prestashop, OsCommerce, Ghost, Facebook and Microsoft Word.”

    If you are using Joomla, a tool like MyJoomla can help you audit your website. I’m sure similar websites for WordPress exist as well.

  3. Patch your security holes. Don’t just restore your website, and assume you’re not going to get hacked again. You’d be wrong, and stupid to assume that you were just unlucky.

Of course, some people would suggest that my list is missing “Migrate away from WordPress, lol.” I mean, yes. That can be an option if the security holes in WordPress concern you. Just keep in mind that no CMS is perfect, and prone to security problems. Yes, even the one you built yourself. Especially the one you built yourself.

Do you have tips or suggestions to update our list? Questions and being hacked? Use the comments below to be heard. Please keep the “WordPress sucks lol get gud noob” jokes to a minimum.

 

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