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Distributed WordPress Admin Account Cracking

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November 30th, 2009
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WordPress Security
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Comments

  1. Daniel (3 comments.) says:

    I recommend to install User Locker (my plugin :)) – it locks account after given number of incorrect login attempts. Locked accounts can be later unlocked by admin or using “lost password” option.

  2. Otto (215 comments.) says:

    Interesting. Might explain why some of my sites are running insanely slow lately.

    A quick check on the redirect_to variable in your wp-config.php can reject these sorts of attacks instantly, without breaking anything (usually):

    if (!empty($_REQUEST[‘redirect_to’]) && strpos($_REQUEST[‘redirect_to’],’example.com’) === false) die;

    That basically says to look for example.com in the redirect_to variable (if one exists), and if it’s not there, just stop processing any further. You’d change example.com to your own site, of course. That’d stop this particular attack (and similar ones) from getting anywhere.

  3. DazzlinDonna (8 comments.) says:

    That’s why I always recommend using the Login Lockdown plugin as one security measure, as it will lock out anyone trying to brute force their way in.

    Author plugin page at http://www.bad-neighborhood.co.....kdown.html
    WordPress plugin download page at http://wordpress.org/extend/pl.....-lockdown/

  4. David Lari (9 comments.) says:

    I installed a plug-in called “Peter’s Login Redirect”. On the Login Redirect setting page, I updated the URL field in the section “All other users” to point to “http://mydomain.com/wp-login.php”. This page does not contain the word “Log out” which is what the script looks for to see if it was successful. Therefore, the script will always think it has failed. (Assuming I have not made some horrible mistake and am totally not understanding this attack.)

    HTH,
    David

  5. Michael VanDeMar (1 comments.) says:

    Also, for those who aren’t that savvy at making up strong passwords, or hate doing it because it generally means that they are inherently difficult to remember, this is a nifty little tool that generates passwords that are both strong and memorable:

    http://www.bad-neighborhood.co.....erator.htm

  6. Richard Orelup (3 comments.) says:

    User Locker works better for defending against this attack over Login Lockdown (From what I read about LL, not used myself) because this is a distributed attack. LL will put an IP address restriction, but this is coming from multiple computers. Now it will only give them each a limited amount of attempts, User Locker will stop all after the first few attempts.

    Otto – That could be faked if needed. This attack it would stop but future smarter attacks would probably get around that.

    David – It would probably be better to stop them from getting through at all then just giving them something different then what they are expecting to see because later attacks may look for something different. Obfuscation is great but shouldn’t be the only defense.

    Wrote up a piece myself on what I’m doing through IP limiting and going through the other methods.

    http://www.mustudios.com/2009/.....ce-attack/

    Thanks
    Richard

    • Otto (215 comments.) says:

      Richard: Only if you found a way specific to the site in question. The code I gave forces the redirect_to do go back to your site. So they’d need a customized script for the site or an XSS bug to exploit for detection.

      • Richard Orelup (3 comments.) says:

        Sorry I misread and thought it was a referrer check, not the redirect to.

        But really, there is no reason they would need to set the redirect like they are. Your change works for this attack but this attack wasn’t really that smart in handling it that way. All it takes is using the default wp-admin location for your site or even leaving the redirect off completely since it will do it on it’s own.

        It’s better to use a solution that will stop all brute force attacks then a specialized solution for this one specific (and poorly thought out) attack that you would then have to update once a proper one comes.

        Richard

  7. Michael Hampton (14 comments.) says:

    Bad Behavior already blocked this script.

  8. Ian Roke (2 comments.) says:

    This is an interesting post which in part prompted me to write a post on my blog about how to dumb down the admin account making it harder to hack and invariably pointless anyway because I have created a new user account with the Administrator role and changed the role of the admin account to Subscriber.

    The post can be found at http://blog.ianroke.co.uk/2010.....allations/ if anybody is interested.

    Cheers, Ian.

    • Richard Orelup (3 comments.) says:

      Wanted me to login to comment on your blog so I will comment here. Why reduce the privs and change the password when you can just delete the account? Obivously you aren’t going to use it so why even leave it there?

      • Ian Roke (2 comments.) says:

        Thanks for bringing that to my attention Richard. I have recently moved my blog to another host and got some of the settings crossed up. It has been rectified now.

        I don’t suppose there is really a right or wrong way of doing things I just chose that particular method because I come from a data warehouse background where we don’t delete anything just hide it from view.

        Your method is perfectly adequate too as a way to secure a WordPress installation.



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