How to avoid brute force login attacks on your WordPress blog or website

If your WordPress blog or website has been hacked numerous times and you have followed all of the tips on securing it, there is one other thing you can do – limit which ips (i.e. computers/internet connections) can login to your WordPress admin panel.  Recently there has been a rash number of brute force login attacks on WordPress blogs and websites.  Even an unsuccessful login can prove to be detrimental to your website by causing a heavy server overload, thereby perhaps necessitating a server reboot, and leaving your website offline for a bit.  And a successful login – that can really mess up your website.

Here’s how to do it:

Add these lines to your existing WordPress directory .htaccess file, or create a .htaccess file if you don’t have one yet. (If you are using WordPress integrated with UltimateWB, you will already have a created .htaccess file in your WordPress directory)  This example limits ips to WordPress’s login page.   The file “wp-login.php” can be modified to any file that may be at risk of being targeted for brute force attacks.

WordPress .htaccess Location: /wordpressdirectory/.htaccess file:
examples:
/httpdocs/  (root directory installations of WordPress)
/wordpress/
/blog/
…etc.

Lines to add:
<FilesMatch wp-login.php>
Order Allow,Deny
Allow from 123.123.123.123  (replace with YOUR IP)
#Allow from 123.123.123.121 additional lines can be added for multiple IP access
#Deny from all
</FilesMatch>

Easy!  Contact us if you have any questions, or post a comment here.

Related:
Why do WordPress websites and blogs get hacked so much?
WordPress website hacked?  How to fix it…!

 

This entry was posted in Website Security and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *