WordPress Best Practices for Security

WordPress Security Best Practices on Azure App Services (Windows/Linux)

Best Practices

When it comes to Security, there are a few Best Practices recommended when using Azure App Services.

1. Modifications in wp-config.php file:
   • Change default $table_prefix from wp_ to a unique string
   • Utilize the encoding for Keys and Salts
   • Disable File Editing with: define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true);
     • This will remove edit_themes, edit_files, and edit_plugins capabilities to all users.
2. DO NOT use weak passwords or usernames like: admin, administrator, test123, password, etc.
3. Keep WordPress updated.
4. Backup regularly
   • Use Backups for Azure App Services.
5. Web Server config modifications (IIS and Apache)
   • Restrict access to wp-config.php
   • Limit access to wp-config.php
   • Prevent clickjacking with header: X-FRAME-OPTIONS = SAMEORIGIN
6. Delete xml-rpc.php if not used
7. Enable Static/Dynamic IP Restrictions
8. PHP modifications:
   • Reduce XSS Attacks:
     • Add session.cookie_httponly = true in php.ini or .user.ini
9. Use a WordPress security plugin

Modifications in wp-config.php

1. Change the $table_prefix from wp_ to something unique.
   • Example: $table_prefix = 'mysite_';
2. Utilize the encoding for Keys and Salts
   • You can generate these using the following: https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/
3. Disable File Editing by adding define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true);
   • This will remove edit_themes, edit_files, and edit_plugins capabilites to all users.

WordPress Updates

You can enable various levels of auto updates for WordPress by adding the following in your wp-config.php file.

define('WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', true);

• When set to true - Development, minor, and major updates are all enabled.
• When set to false - Development, minor, and major updates are all disabled.
• When set to 'minor' - Minor updates are enabled, development, and major updates are disabled.

Backup Regularly

Follow these steps in the Azure App Service documentation for backing up your site with the Backup feature. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/manage-backup

Web Server config

• Restrict access to wp-config.php
  • Apache:

      <Files wp-config.php>
      # Apache 2.2
      Order Deny,Allow
      Deny from all
    
      # Apache 2.4+
      Require all denied
      </Files>
    

  • IIS

      <location path="wp-config.php">
          <system.webServer>
              <security>
                  <ipSecurity allowUnlisted="false" />
              </security>
          </system.webServer>
      </location>
    

• Limit access to wp-login.php
  • Apache

      <Files wp-login.php>
      # Apache 2.2
      Order Deny,Allow
      Deny from all
      Allow from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
      Allow from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
    
      # Apache 2.4+
      Require all denied
      Require ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
      Require ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
      </Files>
    

  • IIS

      <location path="wp-login.php">
          <system.webServer>
              <security>
                  <ipSecurity allowUnlisted="false">
                      <add ipAddress="xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" allowed="true" />
                  </ipSecurity>
              </security>
          </system.webServer>
      </location>
    

• Prevent clickjacking by adding an addditional header: X-FRAME-OPTIONS = SAMEORIGIN
  • Apache

      # Inside the apache2.conf or httpd.conf file
      Header always append X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN
    

  • IIS

      <system.webServer>
          <httpProtocol>
              <customHeaders>
                  <add name="X-Frame-Options" value="SAMEORIGIN" />
              </customHeaders>
          </httpProtocol>
      </system.webServer>
    

Enable Static/Dynamic IP Restrictions

IP restrictions can be enabled in App Services by setting up access restrictions. More information on this can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/app-service-ip-restrictions

• Dynamic IP Restrictions
  • Apache

      # Requires libapache2-modsecurity to be installed
      # ex. apt-get install libapache2-modsecurity
    
      SecRuleEngine On
    
      <LocationMatch "^/.*">
      # initialise the state based on X-Forwarded-For ip address
      SecRule REQUEST_HEADERS:X-Forwarded-For "@unconditionalMatch" "phase:2,initcol:ip=%{MATCHED_VAR},pass,nolog,id:100"
    
      # if greater then burst_rate_limit then pause set RATELIMITED var and then return 509
      SecRule IP:ACCESS_COUNT "@gt " "phase:2,deny,status:509,setenv:RATELIMITED,skip:1,nolog,id:102"
    
      # if above rule doesnt match increment the count
      SecAction "phase:2,setvar:IP.access_count=+1,pass,nolog,id:103"
    
      # set the base rate to one per second
      SecAction "phase:5,deprecatevar:IP.access_count=1/1,pass,nolog,id:104"
    
      # set a header when ratelimited
      Header always set Retry-After "10" env=RATELIMITED
      </LocationMatch>
    
      ErrorDocument 509 "Rate Limit Exceeded"
    

  • IIS

      <system.webServer>
          <security>
              <dynamicIpSecurity enableLoggingOnlyMode="true">
                  <denyByConcurrentRequests enabled="true" maxConcurrentRequests="10" />
                  <denyByRequestRate enabled="true" maxRequests="30" requestIntervalInMilliseconds="300" />
              </dynamicIpSecurity>
          </security>
      </system.webServer>
    

PHP Modifications

• Reduce Cross Site Scripting (XSS) attacks:
  • Add session.cookie_httponly = true in the php.ini, .user.ini, or custom .ini file being loaded into PHP.

WordPress security plugin

There are many different WP Security plugins out there that you could use. Using any one of them could help provide better overall security for your WordPress site compared to not having one at all. A list of some well known plugins are below:

• Wordfence Security: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/
• All In One WP Security: https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-wp-security-and-firewall/
• Sucuri Security: https://wordpress.org/plugins/sucuri-scanner/