We will explain why WordPress brute force attacks cannot be prevented by login screen security alone and what to do about it.
What is a brute force attack?
A brute force attack is an attack that attempts to successfully log in as an administrator by repeating the WordPress login enforcement thousands and thousands of times by predicting the password.
Once a hacker is able to log in as a WordPress administrator, they can do anything they want, including modifying files, hosting unauthorized files, and installing unauthorized plugins via the WordPress administration screen.
Hackers have a dictionary of commonly used passwords and will use this dictionary to conduct an automatic brute force attack. This attack can cause a huge amount of traffic to WordPress and slow down the site.
Brute force attacks cannot be prevented by login screen security alone.
There are two types of brute force attacks: one is by sending login information to wp-login.php, the WordPress login program, and the other is by using the XMLRPC mechanism.
For this reason, it is not possible to prevent brute force attacks by simply adding a capture to the login screen or changing the login screen URL.
What is the brute force attack method using XMLRPC?
XMLRPC is a mechanism that allows WordPress to create posts from the outside via the Internet. If the login information is incorrect, an error message is output. By analyzing this error message, it is possible to determine whether the login was successful or not, thus enabling a brute force attack.
How can I prevent brute force attacks on both the login screen and XMLRPC?
Free] WordPress:Malware Scan & Security Plugin [Malware and Virus Detection and Removal].
This section explains how to prevent brute force attacks on both the login screen and XMLRPC using the
After downloading and installing the plugin, select “High” in the Malware Scan > Security tab of the administration page and save the settings.
This will enable the Login Lockdown, Login Capture, Password Reset Capture, and Prevent Excessive Access to XMLRPC features and enable the security features to prevent brute force attacks on both the login screen and XMLRPC.
Monitor brute force attacks and block IPs
It is also possible to monitor brute force attacks and block IPs.
On the plugin’s administration page, under the “Hack Monitor & IP Blocker” tab, check the Enable Hack Monitor checkbox and save the settings.
This will allow you to monitor, detect, and record brute force attacks and vulnerability attacks by hackers.
The recorded hacker attacks can then be used to block the hacker’s IP.
By blocking the hacker’s IP, the hacker will no longer be able to brute-force attack on that IP.
We hope this helps.
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