Given that WordPress powers millions of websites worldwide, it’s no surprise that it’s a prime target for malicious activities ranging from brute force attacks and hacking attempts to unauthorized access — all of which can wreak havoc on your site’s functionality, damage reputation, or even result in lost revenue and sales.
A common entry point often exploited by hackers is the WordPress login page, making its security crucial for the overall protection of your site. In this post, we’ll delve into the importance of protecting your WordPress login page, and more importantly, how to do it. So, let’s dive in.
Where is the WordPress login page located?
By default, all WordPress websites have the same login page location — typically your domain followed by /wp-admin/ or /wp-login.php.
What makes the WordPress login page vulnerable to attack?
One of the main reasons that WordPress login pages are vulnerable to attack lies in their predictability. Since the default location for the login page is /wp-admin/ or /wp-login.php, this commonality makes it easy for hackers to find and target these pages.
Once attackers access the login page, bad actors often use a technique known as brute force attacks. This method involves attempting to login repeatedly with different combinations of usernames and passwords until they find the correct combination. The more attempts they make, the higher the chances of them cracking your credentials.
Moreover, if your username is easy to guess — like ‘admin‘ or your first name, which might be publicly available — or the attacker performs a user enumeration attack, then half of the job is already done. Now they only need to guess the password.
Default configurations of WordPress also do not limit the number of login attempts a user can make. This is risky as it allows hackers to make endless attempts to guess your login credentials without any consequences, making your login page an attractive target.
Additionally, many website owners install numerous plugins and themes to customize their WordPress sites. While these tools can be useful, they can also introduce vulnerabilities if they are not regularly updated, happen to be nulled or pirated, or come from untrusted sources.
How to secure the WordPress login page
Let’s take a look at ten steps you can take to secure your WordPress login page and protect your sensitive admin panel from hackers:
- Use strong and unique passwords for all of your accounts
- Change your default WordPress login URL
- Limit login attempts to prevent brute force
- Enable two-factor authentication for WordPress
- Add captcha to your WordPress login page
- Harden your WP-Config file
- Set a nickname to hide your WordPress username
- Clean up and remove old user accounts
- Delete and remove unused plugins and themes
- Update WordPress core, plugins, themes and other components
1. Use strong and unique passwords for all of your accounts
Strong and unique passwords are among the most crucial elements to your website’s security. At the most basic level, your WordPress credentials are the first line of defense against potential threats.
What makes a password strong?
A strong password is typically characterized by length, complexity, and unpredictability. Here are a few guidelines to consider:
Length
When it comes to creating a secure password, size matters. The length of your password directly impacts its strength. Your passwords should be at least 12 characters long, but the longer, the better.
Every additional character exponentially increases the time it would take for a hacker to crack your password using brute force methods. This is because they have to try more combinations to guess your password correctly.
In essence, a long password acts as a powerful deterrent, making the hacker’s job significantly more complicated and time-consuming.
By simply using strong passwords with higher levels of entropy, you significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access to your WordPress website.
Complexity
It’s not just about letters; it’s about the variety of characters you use. Mixing uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters add multiple layers of complexity to your password.
Each additional type of character used in your password significantly increases the pool of possible combinations, making it more challenging for hackers to guess correctly. The more diverse your password, the harder it is for automated hacking tools to break it down.
Unpredictability
Predictability is a password’s worst enemy. Using obvious choices like “password“, “123456” or easily discoverable personal information such as your birthdate, pet’s name, or your name makes the hacker’s job easier. It’s basically like leaving your keys under the doormat; it’s one of the first places a burglar would look.
When creating a password, it’s important to think outside the box and avoid common words or phrases. The more random and unpredictable your password, the less likely a hacker is to guess it. Consider using a phrase or a combination of unrelated words that only make sense to you.
Importance of using unique passwords for each account
Using the same password across multiple accounts is somewhat like using the same key for every lock. If a hacker cracks one password, they may be able to gain access to all your accounts.
Attackers may also use stolen or leaked credentials, also referred to as credential stuffing attacks, to gain unauthorized access to different services. This attack relies on the tendency for users to use the same password across multiple platforms and accounts.
Therefore, implementing a unique password for each account can help limit the damage a hacker can do if they manage to crack one of your passwords. This way, even if one account gets compromised and leaked, the risk to your other accounts is minimized. It’s a simple but vital strategy to protect against credential stuffing attacks.
2. Change your default WordPress login
The default WordPress login URL is a well-known path that hackers often target. By changing this URL you’re concealing the main entry point to your website, making it harder for automated attacks to breach your site.
Why is the default WordPress login URL a risk?
The default WordPress login URL is either yourwpdomain.com/wp-admin or yourdomain.com/wp-login.php. Given that this is the same for every WordPress website, it’s the first place hackers will look when attempting to gain unauthorized access.
Hackers often use attack tools and bots that systematically target these default URLs. So if your login URL is using the default location, your website will be more exposed to these automated attacks. Simply changing it to a new structure will add one more step of complexity for bad actors.
How to change the WordPress login URL
The easiest way to change your WordPress login URL is by using a plugin such as WPS Hide login.
To change your WordPress login URL:
- Go to Plugins > Add New.
- Download, install and activate the WPS Hide Login plugin.
- You will be redirected to the plugin settings page.
- Update your login path to a new URL and save.
Remember, changing your login URL doesn’t make your website invincible to attacks, but it certainly makes it a less attractive target to hackers.
3. Limit login attempts to prevent brute force attacks
By default, WordPress allows unlimited login attempts. This can leave your site vulnerable to brute force and dictionary attacks. However, you can help mitigate this risk by limiting the number of login attempts.
Understanding brute force attacks
In a brute force attack, an attacker uses automated scripts to attempt thousands, or even millions, of username and password combinations in rapid succession. If your WordPress site permits unlimited login attempts, an attacker can continue this guessing game indefinitely, increasing their chances of eventually hitting the right combination and successfully cracking your credentials.
How limiting login attempts can prevent brute force attacks in WordPress
When you limit login attempts in WordPress, the game changes. After a specified number of unsuccessful attempts, the user is temporarily locked out from making further attempts. This lockout period can range from minutes to hours, or even days, depending on how you configure your settings.
This strategy effectively disrupts the brute force attack by introducing significant delays to their process. Instead of making thousands of attempts per minute, an attacker might be reduced to a handful of attempts per hour or even per day. This dramatically lowers their chances of success within a reasonable timeframe, making the attack impractical and less likely to succeed.
How to limit login attempts on WordPress
Any Sucuri client using our website firewall is automatically protected from brute force. We can restrict access to only authorized IP addresses and also have a brute force detection feature that blocks an IP address after too many failed login attempts. However, if you aren’t an active Sucuri client you can also use a WordPress plugin to accomplish similar functionality.
To limit login attempts on your WordPress site, follow these steps:
- Install and activate a security plugin that provides login limit functionality. One popular option for this use case is Limit Login Attempts Reloaded.
- Once activated, go to the plugin settings.
- Look for the option to limit login attempts. You’ll typically be able to specify the maximum number of failed attempts before a user is locked out and how long they should be locked out for.
- Save your changes.
Limiting login attempts is a simple but effective way to protect your WordPress site from brute force attacks.
4. Enable two-factor authentication for WordPress
Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security to your WordPress site by requiring two types of identification before granting access to your account. This dramatically reduces the chances of unauthorized access to your site, even if your password is compromised.
What is two-factor authentication?
Two-factor authentication is a security measure that requires a user to provide two separate forms of identification to access an account. Typically, this involves something the user knows (like a password) and something the user has (like a unique code sent to their mobile device). Even if a hacker guesses your password, they would still need the second form of authentication to access your account.
Benefits of using two-factor authentication
The primary benefit of two-factor authentication is enhanced security. With 2FA, even if your password is compromised, it’s not enough for a hacker to gain access to your site. This makes it significantly more difficult for unauthorized users to breach your WordPress site, protecting your content and user data from potential cyber threats.
How to enable two-factor authentication on WordPress
If you’re a Sucuri Firewall user, enabling 2FA on your WordPress site is quick and easy.
To configure 2FA for your WordPress login page:
- Navigate to the Firewall’s Protected Pages settings.
- Define the page that you want to protect, such as /wp-login.php or /wp-admin/.
- Select Two Factor Authentication from the drop-down.
- Click on Protect Page.
You have now enabled two factor authentication on your site.
You can also use a WordPress plugin to accomplish this functionality on your site. CAPTCHA 4WP is one of many popular options available in the official WordPress plugin repository.
After you’ve installed the plugin, you’ll need to configure it — this is a fairly simple process. Firstly, sign up for an account. Then choose the type of CAPTCHA you want to implement from the plugin settings and apply them to your pages.
Next, generate site keys for your website. Finally, add these generated API keys into the settings of the CAPTCHA 4WP plugin on your WordPress site.
Regardless of whether you use a firewall or plugin to accomplish the task, by implementing two-factor authentication you make it much harder for hackers to gain unauthorized access. It’s a simple step that can have a big impact on your website’s overall security.
5. Add captcha to your WordPress login page
CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether the user is human. Since an enormous number of attacks on WordPress websites are automated, adding a CAPTCHA to your WordPress login page can provide an additional layer of protection against brute force and spam bots.
Understanding how CAPTCHA works
CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. It’s designed to differentiate between human users and bots. The most common type of CAPTCHA involves the user entering a series of distorted letters and numbers that a bot wouldn’t be able to recognize.
Benefits of adding CAPTCHA to your login page
Adding a CAPTCHA to your login page can help protect your WordPress site from automated attacks. Bots are often used in brute force attacks, where they systematically attempt different username and password combinations to gain unauthorized access. By adding a CAPTCHA, you can help ensure that only humans are attempting to log in.
CAPTCHA can also be effective at preventing spam comments, as it stops bots from being able to automatically post comments.
How to add CAPTCHA to your WordPress login
Sucuri firewall users can easily enable a CAPTCHA challenge for any page on their WordPress site, including /wp-login.php or /admin.php.
To enable CAPTCHA on WordPress:
- Log in to the Sucuri dashboard.
- Navigate to Firewall > Access Control > Protected Pages.
- Define the page you want to protect (ie. /wp-login.php) and then select Captcha Challenge from the drop down menu.
- Click Protect Page.
The defined path will be added to your protected pages and secured against automated attacks with the Sucuri firewall. Contact support any time if you require assistance with this feature.
Adding a CAPTCHA challenge to your WordPress login page is also relatively simple with the use of a plugin.
Here’s how to enable CAPTCHA with a plugin:
- Install and activate a CAPTCHA WordPress plugin. A popular option is the CAPTCHA 4WP WordPress plugin.
- Once activated, navigate to the admin console and register your website.
- Add the generated API keys to the plugin settings.
- Configure the settings to your liking and ensure the CAPTCHA is enabled for your WordPress login and user registration pages.
- Save your changes.
By adding a CAPTCHA to your login page, you add another hurdle for potential hackers, making your WordPress site more secure. It’s a simple measure that can be highly effective at deterring automated attacks.
6. Harden your WP-Config file
Another crucial step is to harden your wp-config.php file. This file is like the blueprint of your WordPress site, containing your database connection information and other critical settings. You can add specific security rules to this file to further protect your website.
The importance of hardening WP-Config
Even with all the security measures for your wp-admin panel in place, there’s always a chance that a vulnerable plugin could allow unauthorized admin access or privilege escalation. In such cases, hardening your wp-config file provides an additional layer of protection, frustrating attackers and making their jobs much harder.
Two essential security rules you can add to your wp-config file are disallow_file_edit and disallow_file_mods. Let’s discuss how these rules enhance your WordPress security.
Implementing disallow_file_edit
The disallow_file_edit function prevents attackers from modifying files directly through the wp-admin dashboard. This is a common method used by attackers to insert backdoors into theme or plugin files after compromising wp-admin access.
To implement this function, add the following line to your wp-config file:
define( 'DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true );Once this is done, the file editor function in the dashboard will no longer be accessible. Any manual attempts to access the editor will result in a permission error.
The advantage of using disallow_file_edit is that it limits the attacker’s ability to establish backdoor access and deliver their payload. However, it also limits some administrator functionalities.
Implementing disallow_file_mods
The disallow_file_mods function prevents the installation of new plugins from the WordPress repository. This is a common method used by attackers to upload malicious files to your site.
To implement this function, add the following line to your wp-config file:
define( 'DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true );Once this is enabled, the Add New button will no longer be present on the plugins page from within your admin panel.
Important caveat: While this rule effectively locks down wp-admin, it also limits your ability to perform routine work on the site, such as updating and installing plugins through the dashboard.
However, even with disallow_file_mods enabled, you can still update plugins using WP-CLI. Just remember to run the update command regularly and have a daily backup service in case you need to restore anything.
7. Set a nickname to hide your WordPress username from blog posts
In WordPress, your username and display name are the same by default. This means that if you publish a post, your username is visible to everyone.
If an attacker knows your username, they’re halfway to accessing your account. However, you can easily mitigate this risk by setting a nickname and hiding your login username from blog posts.
How to set a nickname and hide your WordPress login user
Follow these steps to set a nickname and hide your login username from your WordPress blog posts:
- Log into your WordPress dashboard.
- Select Users > Profile to access your profile settings.
- Scroll down to the Name section. Here, you’ll see a field labeled Nickname. Enter the name you’d like to display publicly on your site in this field.
- Once you’ve entered your nickname, go to the Display name publicly as dropdown menu and select your newly created nickname.
- Scroll down and click Update Profile at the bottom of the page to save your changes.
By keeping it public, you’re making it easier for hackers to launch a brute force or dictionary attack. They already have your username; now they only need to guess your password.
While hiding your username doesn’t make your site impervious to attacks, it does add another layer of security by making it harder for attackers to gain access.
8. Clean up and remove old user accounts
If your WordPress site has been around for a while, there’s a good chance you may have some old user accounts. These could be from employees who no longer work for you, contributors who no longer write for you, or test accounts you’ve created. These old user accounts can pose a significant security risk and should be removed.
Why old user accounts can be a security risk
Every user account on your WordPress site is a potential entry point for hackers. Old user accounts, particularly those with administrator or editor privileges, can pose a significant security risk. If these accounts have weak passwords or if their credentials have been compromised, they could be used to gain unauthorized access to your site. Even accounts with lower-level privileges can be a risk as they could be used in a privilege escalation attack.
How to find and remove old WordPress user accounts
Regularly auditing your user accounts and removing any that are no longer needed can help keep your WordPress site secure. Here’s how to do it:
- Log into your WordPress admin dashboard and navigate to the Users section.
- Review the list of users and identify any accounts that are no longer needed. Consider factors such as when they last logged in and what role they have.
- Before removing an account, ensure that any content they’ve created will not be affected. In WordPress, when you delete a user, you can choose to delete all their content or assign it to another user. It’s much safer to assign the content to another user, as removing content might damage your website depending on what that content is.
- To delete a user, simply hover over their username and click Delete. Confirm your decision in the popup that appears.
By regularly cleaning up old user accounts, you reduce the potential entry points for hackers, making your WordPress site more secure. Remember, every account on your site should be necessary and have an appropriate level of access.
9. Delete and remove unused plugins and themes
Plugins and themes are essential for adding functionality and aesthetic appeal to your WordPress site. However, having unused or outdated plugins and themes can expose your site to potential security risks. It’s like leaving unused doors in your house; they might invite intruders even if they’re locked.
Risks posed by unused plugins and themes
Unused or outdated plugins and themes can have vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit to gain unauthorized access to your WordPress site. Even if they’re deactivated, their code still resides on your server, presenting a potential security risk.
Moreover, if these plugins and themes are no longer being updated by their developers, they become even more of a security risk. This is because any vulnerabilities in their code will remain unpatched, making them an easy target for hackers.
How to find and delete unused plugins and themes
To ensure your WordPress site remains secure, you’ll want to regularly audit your plugins and themes and remove any that are no longer in use or updated.
Here’s how to do it:
- First make a backup of your website (both files and database).
- Log into your WordPress admin dashboard and navigate to the Plugins section.
- From here, you’ll see a list of all installed plugins detected in your WordPress environment. Review this list and identify any plugins you no longer use.
- For each unused plugin, click Deactivate (if it’s active) and then Delete.
- Repeat this process in the Themes section for any themes you’re not actively using.
Remember, less is more when it comes to plugins and themes.
10. Update WordPress core, plugins, themes and other components
Keeping your website software updated with the latest security patches is a critical step to protecting your website from hackers. This includes WordPress core along with all plugins, themes, and other third-party components you may have installed on your site.
The risks of exploitable software vulnerabilities
Since hackers often use automated tools to detect and exploit vulnerabilities in outdated or unpatched software, this makes software vulnerabilities one of the leading ways websites get infected.
One prime example of the risk posed by software vulnerabilities is the Balada Injector malware campaign. In the first half of 2023, this campaign affected more than 60,000 sites with obfuscated scripts. It also pointed external script tags to known malicious domains on another 80,000+ sites. Some sites were victim to both types of attacks simultaneously.
Balada Injector was among the top infections that Sucuri’s remediation team had to deal with in 2023. This malware redirects site visitors to scams, ads, and other malicious resources. It gained momentum in May, 2023 by exploiting a vulnerability in the popular WordPress plugin Essential Addons for Elementor.
The Balada Injector campaign typically appends malicious JavaScript injections to legitimate .js files or injects them into the header or footer of a page. This triggers the malicious injections with each page load, redirecting traffic to the attacker’s intended destination.
This malware clearly highlights the value of keeping your website software patched to help mitigate risk.
Managing WordPress plugins and themes
One effective way to manage your WordPress plugins and themes is by using WP-CLI, a command-line tool specifically designed for WordPress. WP-CLI can help you securely manage your WordPress installation, including updating and patching your plugins and themes.
For additional guidance, check out this short video tutorial we’ve prepared to help you through the process. Enjoy!
Virtual patching WordPress with a Web Application Firewall (WAF)
If you struggle to quickly respond to updates and patch your website software, a web application firewall can be an especially valuable tool. A firewall can help virtually patch known vulnerabilities, offering protection against common threats like cross-site scripting and SQL injection attacks.
Securing your WordPress website and login page from hackers
Protecting your WordPress login page from potential threats is a multifaceted task, but it’s entirely achievable with the right approach.
The WordPress login page is a high-value target for cybercriminals. Changing the default login URL, limiting login attempts, and enabling two-factor authentication are just some of the ways to safeguard it. Additionally, it’s essential to clean up your website by removing unused plugins, themes, and old user accounts, as these could potentially be exploited by attackers.
Leveraging a website firewall and installing a WordPress security plugin are also effective measures to monitor and secure your WordPress website.
By following these steps, you can make your WordPress login page less attractive to attackers and better protect them against various website threats and malware. Remember, every effort you make towards securing your website helps protect your website visitors and rankings, too!
Ben Martin![Malware comes in many different varieties. Analyst Krasimir Konov is on this month’s Sucuri Sit-Down to help keep them all straight. From malicious iframes to SEO spam, join host Justin Channell as he racks Krasimir’s brain on all the different types of malware. Also, Krasimir discusses his recent blog post about a malicious cURL downloader, and Justin breaks down the latest website security news, including patched plugins you should update. Podcast Transcript Justin Channell: Hello, and welcome to the Sucuri Sit Down. I'm your host, Justin Channell, and this is a monthly podcast about website security, where we get in-depth with the malware removal experts here at Sucuri. Later in the show, I'll have our analyst Krasimir Konov to chat about some different types of malware, but first, let's take a look at other topics we've published on our blog and Sucuri labs notes this month. First up, we have some new information about credit card skimming with hackers using a hybrid method to steal payment information from eCommerce websites. Our analyst Dennis Sinegubko wrote about this for the Sucuri blog back at the beginning of June. Now, most credit card stealing malware is a client side JavaScript that grabs data and sends it to a third party server. But, that approach has a drawback for bad actors because it's still possible to track the requests and catch them as being suspicious. Now, to get around that, bad actors have started harvesting information server side by modifying core PHP files. In this case, the infection would be undetectable from the outside, but it's still going to be pretty easy to find because you're rarely modifying any of those core files, so any of those changes that are going to come up are going to be suspicious. To get around both of these drawbacks, we're seeing bad actors combine the two. So client side snippets of JavaScript are sending stolen credit card data to server side scripts that they've installed on the same server as the site. Now, this allows bad actors to cover their tracks a little bit because the traffic that's being redirected is going to the same server, and that's less likely to be flagged as suspicious. It's a bit more complicated to pull this off, but our team has been seeing this hybrid approach in the wild, so it's something to be on the lookout for. Now, another month has passed, and we found more cross site scripting attacks targeting WordPress plugins. Most notably, we discovered one that affects users of the YITH WooCommerce Ajax Product Filter plugin. Now, this is a plugin that allows WooCommerce stores to be filtered by product type, and it's pretty popular. It's got about 100,000 users right now, so with it being vulnerable, it's very important that all of them update to the latest version, which is 3.11.1. Some of the other plugins we found cross site scripting vulnerabilities with included Elementor Page Builder, Careerfy, JobSearch, and Newspaper. If you're looking for a full list of vulnerabilities that have been patched this month, John Castro at the Sucuri Labs blog has you covered. Check out our show notes for the link. Also, this month I had a blog go up detailing what's called a jibberish hack. It's basically the same motivation as an SEO spam attack where bad actors use your site's good standing to redirect visitors to their own sites. But in this attack, you'll find a bunch of randomly named folders filled with a ton of HTML files with really nonsensical file names like cheap-cool-hairstyles-photos.html. It's just going to be a mishmash of keywords that clearly you didn't put there. Unfortunately, just deleting all those HTML files and folders is not going to be enough to get rid of that jibberish hack though. You're going to need to fully clean any hacked files and database tables, and then you're going to have to deal with all the damage caused to your site's standing. And just keep in mind, if you find anything about that process too daunting, we're always here to help. Now, for this month's Sit Down, we have Sucuri analyst Krasimir Konov. Earlier in June, he had written a lab's note about a malicious downloader script that used the curl function, and we chatted a bit about it, but more importantly, we went really in-depth on all the different varieties of malware that website owners need to be aware of. But, before I get started with Krasimir, I just wanted to remind you about the Sucuri Sync-Up, our sister podcast. It's a weekly website security news briefing that you can find anywhere you get your podcasts, as well as the video version on our social media feed, and now you can even get it on your Amazon Alexa smart speakers. Just search Amazon skills for Sucuri Sync-Up, add the flash briefing, and get new content delivered every Monday. Now, on with the show. Hi Krasimir, thanks for joining us on the show. I thought we could start off and maybe have you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do here at Sucuri? Krasimir Konov: Yeah, sure. Well, I joined Sucuri originally in 2014, but I've been in the IT business for about 10 years. Nine of those I did security. And currently at Sucuri I'm one of the malware analysts. I used to work in the front lines, used to clean websites and whatnot, and then I gradually moved up, and now I'm working in the malware research department. And my day to day job is basically analyzing malware, and then once I analyze it and figure out what it is, then I will create a signature for it. And we'll add those signatures to our tools, so we can automate some of the work we do. And I also write some Labs Notes blog posts. Usually, if I find something interesting in malware or some security topic, I'll write about it. Justin Channell: Yeah. And of those topics recently that you wrote about, one was about a malicious curl downloader, and how exactly did that work? Krasimir Konov: Right, yeah. That was an interesting one, but not very unique or anything like that. We see that a lot with curl being used as a downloader. It's a very common malware. So rather than including the actual malware in the file, the attackers would use curl to download the malicious code. In this case, they'll download it from Pastebin, but it could be anything. It could be another website or anything like that, and curl would just make a call to the website, request the code. The website will respond with the code, and then later on, there is some code to either save the output somewhere on the website, or you'll just run it through eval and execute the actual code right away. Justin Channell: Right. And you said that it's commonly found in malware, but let's kind of maybe talk a bit broader about malware in general. What is everything that is classified as malware? Krasimir Konov: Well, in general it will be anything that the owner of the website didn't authorize, anything that was added by a third party. There is a lot of different malware. It could be even something like a defacement that will also be considered malware because it was something the user did not authorize. Even though it might not be doing anything malicious on the website, it's not infecting users, the visit is still something they did not authorize. So defacement would also be considered malware. And even something like ransomware where the website is technically not really damaged, it's all encrypted, but it's not infecting anybody. It's not doing anything malicious, but it's still encrypting the entire website and asking the user or the customer, the owner of the website for a ransom they need to pay in order to get the website back online. Justin Channell: Okay. Let's maybe break it down to each individual type of malware. For example, what would be a way that maybe I-frames could be maliciously used by a hacker? Krasimir Konov: Yeah. An I-frame can be used maliciously when it loads content from another location. You can look at the I-frame as a window that just opens another website. So anything that website has on it, you're pretty much loading it through the I-frame. So if that website is infected and it's serving some kind of malware, by opening an I-frame, you're loading all those elements, everything that was on this website. And sometimes the I-frame can be as small as pixel or something hidden somewhere off the screen, so you wouldn't even know that it was opening it. Justin Channell: And yeah, I feel like we've also seen a lot of them where they're used almost to mimic popups as well. Krasimir Konov: Yeah. I mean the I-frame, it could just load from another website and the other website could do anything. It could be serving just malware and it would try to infect the user that doesn't even know that they're being connected to the other website. It could just have some other JavaScript that's just trying to open up pop ups on the original website through the I-frame. Yeah, it could be a lot of things. Justin Channell: Okay. And also, let's talk a little bit about conditional redirects and how those work. What allows a script to detect which devices are coming in and where they're coming from? Krasimir Konov: Right. Yeah. That's a common one we see a lot. Basically, a conditional redirect would be something, it's a redirect on the website. It's obviously malicious, but there's certain conditions that need to be met before the redirect is actually executed or the redirect happens. For example, let's say if it's on a phishing website or a phishing page that is hidden somewhere on the website. For example, if Google visits it, obviously the attacker doesn't want Google to see the actual phishing page and record it as a phishing page. So they'll look for, for example, the IP address. They would look for the user agent. And a lot of times they can tell that it's a bot. So they'll just return a 404 response, for example, that will be like, "Oh, page not found." So Google would be like, "Oh, it looks like this page doesn't exist." But then if a regular user goes to the same page, then those conditions will be met. The actual website or the script behind the phishing will check and see, and be like, "Oh, this one is running Firefox or Chrome," and be like, okay. And then they'll look at the IP and be like, "Oh, he's in whatever, he's in United States somewhere." And he's like, "Oh, okay. That's good." And then once all of these conditions are met, then the actual script will serve them the actual phishing page. And it'll be like, "Oh, you need to fill out this to recover your account or whatever, or type in your credentials to log in here." Justin Channell: And so this is the type of thing we're really, a website owner is going to run into this more commonly when people are complaining about they're getting served bad content or whatever, and they can't seem to replicate it. It's likely probably these kind of redirects. Is that right? Krasimir Konov: Right, right. It could be something as specific as, for example, a range of IP addresses that correspond to an ISP or maybe let's say a country. It could be like, "Oh, were targeting only customers in the US," so if you're connecting from another country and you go to the same website or the same page, it would just say 404. It will give you a page not found. But then if you actually have an IP address from the United States, you're connecting from the United States, then it will actually show you the phishing page. Justin Channell: Now another type of malware I feel like we see a lot here is SEO spam. We hear people talking about that. What are some of the top SEO spam keywords that you see coming through? Krasimir Konov: Yeah. We get that a lot. We see a lot of spam on websites. A lot of times attackers will use SEO spam to gain ranking for their own website. Or they'll just try to include some kind of SEO spam in links to another website that they're currently running or something. I mean, these things change all the time. So a website might be up for a week and then it'll disappear, and then they'll start another campaign. But yeah, we see that a lot. We see all kinds of keywords they use. Most common ones will be something like Viagra. We'll have like jerseys for sale. A lot of times, they'll use name brands like Nike, Rolex, Prada. We've seen even some essay writing services for some reason. I'm not sure why, but that's common. We see, for example, pharmaceuticals a lot that will use specific medicine names. They'll use all kinds of replicas, like a replica bag of this, replica this, replica that. We'd see prescription, also payday loans. And obviously there's some adult related sites and things like that keywords. Justin Channell: So pretty much anything that people are going to be searching and clicking on are probably going to be targets for SEO spam? Krasimir Konov: Right. I think a lot of it commonly is pharma related because a lot of people are looking to buy medicine online, and a lot of times will require a prescription. So a lot of people are like, "Oh, let me see if I can find this medicine that I can buy it online somewhere." They don't need a prescription. They don't want to pay to visit a doctor and whatnot, and they'll look for it. And yeah. Justin Channell: Now, whenever somebody's website does get hacked with a SEO spam attack, what kind of effect can it have on the website beyond just being defaced? Krasimir Konov: Yeah. You can have a lot of things can happen, negative things. For example, the website can be blacklisted because of the keywords. And that usually represents a big red warning when you go on the website, depending on who blacklisted it. But if it's Google, for example, you'll see a big warning and it'll tell you this website contains malware or there's something wrong with this website. So, pretty much all the traffic on the website will be gone. And then you can also lose a lot of your reputation if there is a SEO spam on the website. For example, if you were ranked in say number five for certain keywords that represent your product on Google search engines, and then suddenly you get hit with SEO spam, then all these search engines then go and visit the website. And all of a sudden they're like, "Oh, there's all these weird key words on here, all this SEO spam that's causing a lot of mixed signals." And the search engines are like, "Oh, where do we rank this website now? Do we rank them with this product that's originally what the website is about? Or do we take into consideration all these other keywords that are mixed up that are SEO spam?" So, all of a sudden your website might go from being ranked number five on the first page to being on the 10th page. And then you rank for all these other keywords that you didn't intend to. And then people search for something completely different. They're searching for jerseys or something, or now they're searching for Prada products, and then suddenly your website pops up in there. So you're not really getting any good traffic, not targeted traffic. But, yeah. Justin Channell: Okay. So in a lot of ways, the effects of SEO spam would kind of be the same for defacements or any kind of malware with the blacklisting, but it does bring that kind of unique part to it where then it can also then bring traffic that you weren't expecting from somebody searching for jerseys, for example. I had not really ever thought about that. Krasimir Konov: Right, right. Yeah. It will definitely bring some traffic. I've seen a lot of times where websites will be connected. Let's say, there was 1,000 websites that were all infected with SEO spam, and it will kind of link each other to try to bring each other up into the rankings. And so you would see a lot of strange traffic from some random websites that were, for example, that were previously infected, even if they might not be anymore. But yeah, they'll be sending traffic to you or there'll be usually search engines sending you traffic, but for the wrong keywords. People are looking for something else, so obviously they're not going to be interested in your website. They're not going to buy anything because they're not looking for that. Justin Channell: And now, so thinking of the way websites get infected, a very common way it seems to be is through phishing campaigns. What are some recommendations you have for the best ways to avoid becoming a phishing victim? Krasimir Konov: Yeah. There is some ways. I mean, it depends really on the type of attack. Obviously, a lot of people, when they think of phishing, they think, "Oh, it's just like a PayPal phishing page and it just looks like the original," but it could be more subtle. If it's just a regular page where you're just going and you get redirected to another website, obviously the first thing to look is if you have the security padlocks, make sure that traffic is encrypted. A lot of these websites don't really have any encryption nowadays. More are starting to get that with pre SSLs being issued and whatnot. But that's the first thing to look and see, make sure. Anywhere you're typing your sensitive information, you want to make sure you have the padlock to make sure everything is encrypted. Krasimir Konov: But also you want to look at the URL of the actual website you're visiting. A lot of times they'll try to hide it. So you might have to be careful and look closely. Something that might be an I will be an L or something like that. And a capital I and L might look kind of similar into your IRL, so you might miss something like that. Say, if you're looking for PayPal and it might replace the L with an I, and if you don't look closely, it might look exactly the same. And you're like, "Oh, okay, it's paypal.com," but not really. So yeah. Just pay attention to the URL, make sure it is the actual website. There's no paypal.com dot something, dot something else, dot com. Yeah. You want it to just say paypal.com, and then it'll have forward slash and something else. But yeah, it gets more complicated when you have, for example, a phishing page that's injected into a regular page. For example, you have a checkout page on a website that you're buying things from and you go through the checkout page and you're looking at where you type in your credit card information and whatnot. And you might have a phishing page that actually looks exactly like a little box that gives you where you put in your credit card number, or your name, your address, and all that. So that will be more subtle. For example, that could be also an I-frame that's just coming from another page. And it will look exactly like it's part of the website. You're on the legitimate website, but only that portion of the website is actually the phishing page. And you look at it and you're like, "Oh, okay. It looks fine. I'm just putting my credentials." So that one could be a lot harder to figure it out. Usually, if it's something like that, I look for something that looks kind of out of place. Maybe they didn't get the right font. It might not be the same as the original website or there might be something out of place, some fields that are missing or some fields that are squished into the left or the right. It looks kind of awkward. It's like, why would this be like this? The whole website looks professional. There's a pink background or something, for example, and then suddenly there's this white box in the middle. It's like, ah, it looks kind of weird, out of place. Justin Channell: So pretty much if anything looks slightly out of place, you really should double check everything at that point. Krasimir Konov: Right. Right. Yeah. Obviously there's more ways that you can check, but I wouldn't get into more technical, like inspecting elements and looking at stuff, but yeah. Justin Channell: And now another type of malware that's kind of, and it kind of plays in with whatever the other infection is, is backdoors. Can you give us some examples of what backdoors can be? It's mainly just when a hacker can get back into the site to reinfect it, but I know there are a ton of different methods. And what are some of the more common ones and then maybe some that really interesting that you've seen? Krasimir Konov: Yeah, there is a lot. They'll probably be one of the first things the hacker would do is if they compromise a website, obviously they'll try to spread backdoors and just inject code everywhere so they can get back in, even if the owner of the website or webmaster cleans it. They want to try and hide some malicious code somewhere so they can always get back in. There's many variations. A backdoor could be something as simple as a single line of code to just [inaudible 00:20:19] argument, some kind of string or something via get or post. Krasimir Konov: And then it runs into an eval, so it evaluates the code and executes it. And some backdoors are very complex and they can be included in, let's say you have a WordPress site and you have a specific login page where all the login credentials are being processed and everything else. They could even inject code into that to basically bypass the whole login mechanism so that they can just bypass everything. They don't even have to know any user. They don't have to know the password, nothing. They'll just include some lines in there, and every time they'll be just able to log in. Yeah. It gets pretty crazy. Yeah. I mean, there's all kinds of malware. There is always a malware, for example, that just targets credit cards and will just target the eCommerce websites. And they'll just try to steal the login credentials, I mean, the credit cards. They'll try to get your address, your credit card information, any kind of CVV code or whatever you typed into the billing address, everything. And then there's also malware like the backdoors that are just trying to keep the attacker in control and trying to get them back into the website. There's just so many variations of what a malicious user might want to do on a website. Some can be something as simple as just reinfecting the website. They don't want to keep control. They just want to keep reinfecting it with some kind of malware. So even if you clean it, it would just get reinfected. Some of them in the database, otherwise might be in the files. We've seen some added into a [inaudible 00:22:14] job that just keeps running on the server. There could be malware that is just a giant to, for example, attack out of websites. Like for example, a distributed denial service where they put the same malware on thousands of websites. And then they try to send traffic to one website to try to bring it down. Yeah. People try to do all kinds of stuff with websites. We've seen even some cryptocurrency mining malware that you go onto a website and suddenly your PC starts running like crazy. And you're like, what the hell is going on? Your fans turn on and the PC is 100% CPU. And it turns out that the website has some malware that's just by mining Bitcoins with your CPU and it's using all of it. Justin Channell: Wow. Okay. So one question now, the last question I have is of all the malware that you've seen, what do you think is the coolest piece of malware that you've ever seen? Krasimir Konov: I think the coolest would be the ones that are so subtle that you don't even know that it's there. For example, we've seen some that were pretty innovative. It will be just a one liner code that's just one line. And for example, it will be let's say 40-50 characters, something like that. And that's all it is. And they'll hide it somewhere in between the legitimate code. And if you don't know what you're looking for, you would never see it. It doesn't look suspicious. There is no links to some other website. There's no some kind of encrypted code or anything like that. It's just a simple one line. And then if you're just scrolling through the file looking for something, you would never see it. It just looks like all the other code. And then if you look closely, you're like, "Oh, there's this..." Look closely, and you're like, "Oh wow, this is not supposed to be there." And then you keep looking at it and you're like, "This looks really weird." And then you see that it's actually doing some malicious things and trying to evaluate some code or taking output from the outside, I mean, some input from outside, you can call it and give it code to run. Justin Channell: Well, Krasimir, thanks for coming on and talking to us for today. Krasimir Konov: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I'm so happy. I'm glad I was able to do this podcast and I can't wait to do another one. Justin Channell: Yeah, we'll have you on again. Thanks. Krasimir Konov: Thank you. Justin Channell: Thanks again to Krasimir for joining us here on the Sit Down. We'll be back with another episode next month. So be sure to subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or any podcasting platform. Also, be sure to follow us on social media at Sucuri Security and check us out at sucuri.net. That's S-U-C-U-R-I.net. I'm Justin Channell, And this has been the Sucuri Sit Down. Stay safe out there.](https://blog.sucuri.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/20-sucuri-podcast-blog-post_blog_image-390x183.jpg)
Justin Channell
Allison Bondi
Marc-Alexandre Montpas
Juliana Lewis
Daniel Cid
Pilar Garcia
Alycia Mitchell
Krasimir Konov
Bruno Zanelato