If you think your site is running slowly, it might actually be a brute-force attack—or a DDoS attack. Here’s how to identify these attacks and what measures even small-scale sites can take to defend against them.
What is a brute-force attack? What is a DDoS attack?
A brute-force attack is an attack in which hackers use a dictionary of tens of thousands of commonly used passwords and run a program to mechanically attempt to log in to WordPress thousands or even millions of times, betting on the possibility that they will eventually succeed.
A DDoS attack is a type of mass traffic attack that floods a specific site with a huge volume of traffic to maximize server load, making it difficult to display the site.
Regardless of the type of site, WordPress sites are under daily attack from hackers. Brute force attacks, a primary method of attack, can cause massive traffic similar to a DDoS attack, slowing down the site.
How to check if your site is experiencing a high volume of traffic from a brute-force attack
One way to check for a high volume of traffic from a brute-force attack is to examine the server access logs and look for a large number of requests to files frequently used in such attacks, such as wp-login.php and xmlrpc.php.
If a large number of accesses are recorded, a common and effective method is to block the IP addresses of the sources for a certain period of time.
*To block IP addresses of sources generating high traffic in .htaccess, add the following settings:
Apache 2.4 series
<RequireAll> Require all granted Require not ip 123.456.789.0 Require not ip 111.222.333.0 Require not ip 999.888.777.0 </RequireAll>
Apache 2.2 series
Order deny,allow Deny from 123.456.789.0 Deny from 123.456.789.0
*Please replace the numbers (e.g., 123.456.789.0) with the hacker’s IP address
Detect and block brute force attacks with a plugin
Additionally, by using the [Free] WordPress: Malware Scan & Security Plugin [Malware & Virus Detection and Removal], you can detect and block brute-force attacks.
After downloading and installing the plugin, click the “Hack Monitor & IP Blocker” tab.
Next, click “Enable Hack Monitor.”
If a brute force attack is detected, you can easily block that IP address.
This feature is available for free, so we hope you’ll give the plugin a try.
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