The Hacker's Black Magic

Information. Your business is built on it. Your customers rely on it. The web is full of it. But how secure is that information?

To many of us, hackers are a faceless entity. An unknown threat using seemingly magical methods to steal away the information we all rely on.

This month, we take a quick look at what it looks like from the bad guys' perspective as your security is breached and your information is siphoned away to later be sold to the highest bidder. We'll examine a few of the most common attacks that target WordPress sites, including Brute Force, Cross Site Scripting, and SQL Injection.

Many of these can be easily defended against if you properly understand them, and our goal is to pull aside the curtain and reveal how these attacks work, so that you can better equip your WordPress site to handle them.

Transcript

1. The Hacker’s Black Magic A look behind the curtain…
2. Most Common WordPress Vulnerabilities: • SQL Injection • Brute Force Attacks • Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
3. SQL Injection What is it? SQL Injection is a security exploit where the attacker adds SQL code to an input method, to gain access to resources or make changes to data.
4. SELECT * FROM `wp_users` WHERE user_email = ‘$email’
5. SELECT * FROM `wp_users` WHERE user_email = ‘ninja@ninjas.dev’ $email = ninja@ninjas.dev
6. SELECT * FROM `wp_users` WHERE user_email = ‘x’ OR 1 = 1 $email = x’ OR 1 = 1--
7. SELECT * FROM `wp_users` WHERE user_email = ‘x’; DROP TABLE ‘wp_posts’; $email = x’; DROP TABLE ‘wp_posts’;--
8. SELECT * FROM `wp_users` WHERE user_email = ‘x’; UPDATE `wp_users` SET user_email = ‘ninja@ninjas.dev’ WHERE user_login = ‘admin’; $email = x’; UPDATE `wp_users` SET user_email = ‘ninja@ninjas.dev’ WHERE user_login = ‘admin’;--
9. Most Common WordPress Vulnerabilities: • SQL Injection • Brute Force Attacks • Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
10. Brute Force Attack What is it? A Brute Force Attack is a trial-and-error method used to obtain information, such as a user password or personal identification number (PIN).
11. Most Common WordPress Vulnerabilities: • SQL Injection • Brute Force Attacks • Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
12. Cross Site Scripting What is it? Cross Site Scripting is a vulnerability that enables attackers to inject client-side scripts into web pages viewed by other users.
14. Takeaways • Remove the ‘admin’ user account • Setup two-factor authentication • Setup an account lockout • Know what’s on your site • Be aware of your plugins’ reliability