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9 (+1) unusual tips to tighten up WordPress security in 2025

Anthony Kelechukwu

September 26, 2024

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So, Rob Cubbon woke up one morning only to find out that the blog he’s been working on has been attacked! Bad guys on it again… And your’s might just be the next!

WordPress, while being the most popular platform, is also one of the most frequently targeted by hackers. In fact, every 22 minutes, a WordPress site is attacked, and to make things worse, 30,000 websites are hacked daily.

That’s scary, right? sure, it should be.

But don’t worry! With the right tools, practices, and a little bit of know-how, you can defend your WordPress website and avoid the headache of a cyber attack.

So, if you’re serious about keeping your WordPress site safe in 2024, here are 9 (plus 1 bonus) unusual tips to tighten up your security.

Scary WordPress Vulnerability Stats

If the thought of getting hacked doesn’t have you ready to lock everything down, these stats might just do the trick:

• A whopping 92% of reported vulnerabilities in WordPress come from plugins.
• About 61% of infected WordPress sites were running outdated versions at the time of the attack.
• Brute force attacks, where hackers attempt to crack your password, accounted for 6.4 billion attacks blocked by security plugins like Wordfence in just one year.
• Insecure passwords are a huge issue, with 81% of attacks related to weak or stolen passwords.

With numbers like these, it’s easy to see why WordPress security should be a top priority for every site owner. But it’s not all doom and gloom—these vulnerabilities mean that there’s a lot we can do to prevent attacks. So, let’s dive into some practical, unusual tips to help you protect your site like a fortress.

Why Should You Tighten Up WordPress Security?

“Is security really that big of a deal?” you might ask. The short answer: absolutely.

WordPress is an attractive target for hackers simply because of its popularity. Hackers know that by exploiting common weaknesses in WordPress, they have the potential to access millions of websites. These attacks can lead to a number of unfortunate outcomes, including:

• SEO sabotage: Hackers often inject SEO spam into websites, which can tank your search rankings and flood your pages with unwanted links.
• Malware infections: Malware can infiltrate your site, causing problems for both you and your visitors.
• Financial loss: Recovering from a security breach can be expensive.
• Legal consequences: If your site handles sensitive user data, you may be held legally responsible for any breaches.

Let’s face it—there’s nothing worse than losing all your hard work due to a security oversight. Luckily, by implementing the following tips, you can greatly reduce the risk of becoming another scary statistic.

How to Secure Your WordPress Website

Having known the importance of securing your WordPress site, and its consequences, it’s now time to learn how to tighten up our WordPress security and avoid losing our site to hackers.

1. Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF)

A Web Application Firewall (WAF) acts as a shield between your WordPress site and the internet. It monitors and filters incoming traffic, blocking malicious requests before they can even reach your website.

One of the best parts about a WAF is that it’s proactive. Unlike some security measures that only react after an attack occurs, a WAF actively scans incoming data in real time to prevent common attacks like SQL injections, cross-site scripting (XSS), and even brute force attempts.

For example, let’s say a hacker is trying to perform an SQL injection attack—where they insert harmful SQL code through a vulnerable form or URL to gain access to your site’s database. A WAF would recognize this suspicious behavior and block the request before it reaches your server.

There are two types of WAFs: network-based and host-based. While network-based WAFs are typically offered by hosting providers, host-based WAFs can be added via third-party services such as Cloudflare.

Hostinger, for instance, offers a built-in WAF as part of their hosting service, which is fantastic if you’re looking for an all-in-one solution. But if you’re using another provider, Cloudflare have excellent options that are easy to set up.

2. Implement Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

Passwords alone are not enough to protect your WordPress site. Think about it—81% of WordPress security breaches are caused by weak or stolen passwords.

With 2FA, you’re adding an extra step for users to log in to your WordPress dashboard. Instead of just typing in a password, they’ll also need to enter a secondary piece of information—usually a code sent to their phone.

Here’s how it works in real life. Let’s say a hacker has managed to guess your admin password through a brute force attack. Normally, that would be game over. But with 2FA enabled, even if they have your password, they still need that second code to get in, which only you have access to.

Setting up 2FA is straightforward. Plugins like WP 2FA or Wordfence Login Security make it easy to enable this feature on your WordPress site. You can set it up for specific user roles, such as administrators and editors, to ensure that critical areas of your site are extra secure.

A real-world example of 2FA in action is with email providers like Gmail. If you’ve ever tried to log in to your email from a new device, you’ll likely have had to enter a code sent to your phone. This is the same principle, but for WordPress.

While it might seem like a hassle to type in a second code every time you log in, this small inconvenience can save you from the much bigger headache of a hacked site. Plus, once set up, most systems remember your device, so you won’t have to enter the code every single time.

3. Change the Default Database Prefix

WordPress databases use a prefix for all their table names. By default, this prefix is set to “wp_”, which makes it easy for hackers to guess and target your database tables in SQL injection attacks.

SQL injection is a type of attack where hackers insert malicious SQL code into vulnerable fields (like contact forms or URLs) to manipulate your database. If they know your database table prefix, they have one less barrier to getting access to your sensitive data.

For instance, let’s say a hacker attempts an SQL injection attack on a form on your site. If your database tables have the default “wp_” prefix, the hacker can write code targeting specific tables like “wp_users” or “wp_options.”

But If you’ve customized your prefix to something random like “abc123_”, their script would fail unless they also guessed your custom prefix.

You might think that changing the database prefix is a technical stuff, which is true, but there are easy ways to do this, like using security plugin like WP All In One Security, which provides an option to change your database prefix with a few clicks.

4. Disable XML-RPC

XML-RPC is a feature built into WordPress that enables remote connections between your website and external apps or services.

For instance, having XML-RPC enabled allows you to post to your WordPress blog via email or mobile apps, which can be useful in some cases, but it’s also a popular gateway for hackers to ge into your WordPress.

In fact, the biggest risks with XML-RPC is brute force attacks. Hackers can exploit XML-RPC to send thousands of login requests with different username-password combinations in one go.

They can also use it to launch DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks by sending massive amounts of requests to overload your site and take it down.

So, if you are not using this feature, which I am very sure you are not, leaving XML-RPC enabled is like leaving a window open in a house where no one lives—it’s just unnecessary.

Disabling XML-RPC is simple and can be done using a plugin like Disable XML-RPC.

Alternatively, You can also add a small code snippet to your .htaccess file to block XML-RPC requests altogether.

Here’s a quick example of what the code looks like:

# Block WordPress xmlrpc.php requests
<Files xmlrpc.php>
    order deny,allow
    deny from all
</Files>

Just adding this snippet will ensure that any attempts to access XML-RPC will be blocked before they can even try to interact with your site.

If you need XML-RPC for specific tasks, like managing your site remotely, you can use Jetpack as a safer alternative. Jetpack’s API is much more secure than the standard XML-RPC implementation, and it provides the same functionality.

5. Limit Login Attempts

A brute force attack works by repeatedly guessing login credentials until the right combination is found. If you’ve left your WordPress login page unprotected, hackers can attempt thousands of guesses.

To put things in perspective, Wordfence blocked 159 billion password attack requests in just one year. That’s a mind-boggling number of attempts, and it’s a clear sign that limiting login attempts is crucial for WordPress security.

The idea behind this technique is simple: After a certain number of failed login attempts, the user (or hacker) is temporarily locked out of the site.

For example, after five failed attempts, you can configure your site to lock that user out for 30 minutes. This drastically reduces the chances of a hacker successfully guessing your password.

Plugins like Limit Login Attempts Reloaded or Login Lockdown are perfect for setting this up. You can customize how many attempts are allowed and how long a user should be locked out after exceeding the limit.

Let’s say you allow up to five failed login attempts within a 15-minute window. If someone tries and fails five times, they’ll be locked out for the next 30 minutes. This gives you enough time to check your security logs and block any suspicious IP addresses permanently if needed.

Another good practice is to enable login notifications, so you get an email whenever someone tries to log in to your site unsuccessfully. This can serve as an early warning system, allowing you to take action before any real damage is done.

6. Monitor File Integrity

One common thing hackers do when targeting your website is to slip malicious files into your WordPress installation without you even knowing.

These files can contain malware, backdoors, or other malicious code that compromises the security of your site. Bad as it is, these changes aren’t always easy to spot. That’s why it’s essential to regularly check the integrity of your site’s files.

Monitoring file integrity helps you keep a close eyes on every file upload in your WordPress site. If any file gets altered, added, or removed without your permission, you’ll get an immediate alert.

The easiest way to monitor this iis by using plugins. Wordfence has built-in file integrity monitoring tools. It take a snapshot of your site’s current state and continuously compare it to the latest version of your files. If anything suspicious happens, you’ll get notified.

For example, Let’s say you install a plugin from a legitimate source, but during an update, a hacker compromises the plugin’s code and adds a malicious file. file integrity check will find the threat.

Another great tool is WP File Monitor, which sends you an email every time a file is added, modified, or deleted in your WordPress installation. It’s lightweight, easy to set up, and gives you real-time insights into what’s happening on your site.

7. Use a Security Header

Security headers are extra layers of protection added to the top of your site’s HTTP responses.

They tell browsers how to behave when interacting with your site, helping to prevent certain types of attacks like cross-site scripting (XSS), clickjacking, and content injection.

Think of security headers as setting house rules for visitors before they enter your site. You’re basically telling the browser, “Hey, make sure you don’t allow anyone to inject malicious scripts or steal sensitive data!”

The most common security headers you should implement include:

• X-Content-Type-Options: This prevents browsers from interpreting files as a different MIME type, blocking certain types of XSS attacks.
• Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS): This forces browsers to always interact with your site over HTTPS, ensuring that all data is encrypted.
• X-Frame-Options: This header helps prevent clickjacking by ensuring your site can’t be embedded in an iframe on another site.
• Content-Security-Policy (CSP): This is one of the most powerful security headers, allowing you to control which sources are allowed to run scripts on your site.

To set up these headers, you can either manually edit your .htaccess file or use plugins like Security Headers.

If you prefer to edit yor .htaccess file, locate it from your cPanel and add the following nice of code:

# Enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
    Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains"
</IfModule>

Adding these headers will protects your site from attacks, and also improves your site’s security score.

8. Validate User Input

One of the most common ways hackers gain access to WordPress sites is by exploiting vulnerabilities in forms. Whether it’s a contact form, a login form, or even a comment section, any area where users can input data is a potential security risk.

Without proper validation, hackers can inject malicious code into these fields, leading to SQL injections, cross-site scripting (XSS), and even full control of your website.

To prevent this, you need to validate and sanitize all user input. Validation ensures that the data entered by users follows the correct format, while sanitization removes any harmful characters before the data is processed.

Let’s say you have a contact form where users can submit their name and email address. If a hacker tries to enter code instead of a name, validation will ensure the field only accepts letters. On the other hand, sanitization will strip away any unwanted code to make sure that only clean data is processed.

WordPress has built-in functions like wp_kses() and sanitize_text_field(), which are designed to help developers validate and sanitize input. If you’re not a developer, don’t worry—plugins like Contact Form 7 or Ninja Forms include these security measures automatically, so you don’t have to write any code.

An example of input validation gone wrong is the infamous TimThumb vulnerability.

TimThumb was a popular image resizing script that allowed users to upload URLs of images to be resized. Unfortunately, it didn’t validate the URLs properly, allowing hackers to upload malicious scripts that gave them full control over WordPress sites.

This example shows how crucial input validation is. Hackers are always looking for weak spots, so it’s essential to ensure that any form or field on your website is properly secured.

9. Keep Plugins Updated

Plugins are one of the best features of WordPress, but they’re also one of the biggest security risks. A staggering 92% of reported vulnerabilities in WordPress are attributed to outdated plugins.

To make matters worse, many plugins on the WordPress directory haven’t received any update i the past several months, making them a gateway for hackers to launch an attack.

To understand how important updates are, consider the case of Slider Revolution, a popular WordPress plugin that had a massive security flaw back in 2014.

Hackers exploited this vulnerability to take control of thousands of websites. The issue was eventually patched, but only for those who updated their plugins. Many sites that didn’t update remained vulnerable for months.

But wait… Why are plugins such a big target?

It’s simple: WordPress is open-source. this means that anyone can write a plugin.

While most developers have good intentions, not all plugins are built with security in mind. Additionally, plugins can be abandoned by their developers, leaving them unpatched and vulnerable.

To protect your site, you should:

• Always update plugins as soon as new versions are available.
• Delete any unused or abandoned plugins.
• Choose plugins with good reputations.

You can easily stay on top of plugin updates by enabling automatic updates in your WordPress dashboard.

Also, consider using a security plugin like Wordfence, which will alert you if a plugin has a known vulnerability.

10. Conduct Regular Security Audits

A security audit involves reviewing your site’s files, settings, and logs to ensure everything is secure. This process helps you identify any vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers.

The best way to conduct a security audit is by using a plugin like WP Security Audit Log which provide detailed reports on what’s happening behind the scenes on your website, from user logins to file changes.

Regular audits will help you keep track of user activity. For example, if you’ve granted temporary access to a freelancer or developer, an audit can help you ensure they didn’t leave any backdoors open after finishing their work.

In addition to automated audits, it’s a good idea to periodically review your WordPress installation manually. Check for outdated plugins, review user roles, and ensure that your core files are intact.

To be on a safer side, consider outsourcing this service to a reputable freelancer.

Summary

Securing your WordPress site doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does require vigilance. From installing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to conducting regular security audits, each of these steps can help you build a fortress around your WordPress site.

So, take action now before hackers come knocking on your door. Go ahead and enable 2FA and tweak your database prefix. Every step counts. And trust me, it’s a lot easier to prevent an attack than to recover from one.

WordPress security might seem intimidating, but with these unusual tips, you’re well on your way to a safer, more secure website in 2025.

Thanks for reading. Which other ways are you currently securing your WordPress site? let us know in the comment section below.