[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Despite the fact that security threats come in all shapes and sizes, there’s one piece of advice that’s always relevant: install the most If you and the software vendor are both alerted to a vulnerability at the same time, a security patch may not be available.
Even though your website is vulnerable, there are still ways to keep it safe It is possible to harden your WordPress site against all types of attacks, including the dreaded zero-day vulnerability, by implementing some best practices.
In this post, we’ll take a closer look at this security threat, and why it’s taken so seriously by the WordPress community in the first As a follow-up, we’ll show you how to accomplish the near-impossible and protect your site from vulnerabilities that haven’t even.
Contents
An Overview of Zero-Day Vulnerabilities
Because of their unique name, zero-day vulnerabilities immediately stand out. The term “zero-day” can be traced back to the 1990s, when pirates illegally shared commercial software via bulletin boards.
This pirated software was classified by the community based on its release date. For example, if a piece of software was publicly available for 50 days, it was referred to as 50-day software.
The term “zero-day” referred to software that had not yet been officially released to the general public. Zero-day code was typically obtained by hacking into the vendor’s network and stealing the unreleased program. An insider would occasionally leak the code.
The security industry has repurposed this term to denote a vulnerability that is known to the vendor but for which no patch is currently available. In other words, the security flaw puts users at risk, and the vendor has zero days to fix it.
Another term that we frequently use in conjunction with zero-day is “Window of Vulnerability (WoV).” This is the time it takes for a vendor to learn about a vulnerability and then release a patch to the public.
The final related term that is frequently used in conjunction with zero-day vulnerabilities is “forever day vulnerability.” Everyone is aware of a security flaw, and the original developer has no plans to fix it.
This usually happens when the software is no longer actively maintained. If the project in question is open source, you may be able to dig into the code and solve the problem yourself. However, as a general rule, it is prudent to seek out software that is still in active development.
A Zero-Day Vulnerability’s Life Cycle
The manner in which the community discovers and manages vulnerabilities varies. However, it is common for a researcher or a malicious third party to discover a security flaw. The vulnerability is currently considered zero day because it is known but no fix is available. This is also the beginning of the WoV.
The vendor may not always publicly acknowledge that a zero-day vulnerability has been discovered in its software. While this may be concerning for those who use this programme, it is a calculated decision to protect as many people as possible.
If a vendor declares that their software is vulnerable and that no fix is currently available, they are essentially alerting hackers to a serious security issue. This may result in an increase in attacks.
Hopefully, the vendor will develop a fix as soon as possible. They can then issue a patch as part of a scheduled update or as an emergency fix.
The WoV comes to an end at this point. Assuming you install the security update, your website is no longer vulnerable to this vulnerability.
Why Is It Critical to Secure Your WordPress Website?
WordPress now powers more than 40% of the internet. While this popularity demonstrates WordPress’s strength as a Content Management System (CMS), it also makes it an attractive target for hackers. If a malicious third party discovers a zero-day vulnerability in WordPress, it may be able to weaponize this single point of weakness against millions of websites.
There is ample evidence that hackers are actively seeking out WordPress vulnerabilities. Indeed, in a single year, Wordfence recorded 4.3 billion attempts to exploit these flaws. Regrettably, many of these attacks succeed. Patchstack conducted a security survey of the WordPress community and discovered that 25% of respondents had recently dealt with a hacked site.
If a malicious third party does succeed in gaining unauthorised access to your site, the ramifications could be catastrophic. Your website may be defaced, your visitors may be tricked into downloading viruses, or they may be redirected to a spammy website. All of these actions have the potential to harm your reputation. They may even continue to have an impact on your traffic and conversion rates long after the hack has been resolved.
Worse yet, the attacker may delete or steal your data entirely. This may include your customers’ credit or debit card information if you operate an e-commerce site. This type of public relations (PR) disaster can have significant financial consequences, with the average cost of a data breach totaling $3.86 million.
Depending on your geographic location and the nature of the violation, you may even face legal consequences. If a court determines that you did not take sufficient steps to protect your audience’s data, you may face a hefty fine.
When a vendor discloses a new zero-day vulnerability, time is of the essence. To assist you in taking action, here are seven recommendations for hardening your website against the dreaded zero-day vulnerability.
1. Check for Updates
The clock begins ticking as soon as a developer discovers a vulnerability. The good news is that ethical vendors and developers take security threats extremely seriously, and the majority of them will immediately begin working on a fix.
When a zero-day threat is discovered, it is prudent to ensure that you are running the most recent version of the affected software. You might even find that a patch has already been released.
Navigate to Dashboard > Updates to check for WordPress core updates. If a new release is available, you can download and install it by following the on-screen instructions.
Even if the dashboard indicates that you are fully updated, it is still worthwhile to click Check again to ensure that you are running the most recent release.
To check your plugins, navigate to Plugins in the WordPress dashboard and then install any updates that are available. Additionally, you can update your plugins in bulk via the Bulk Actions dropdown.
Even if no patch is available, a fix is almost certainly imminent. As a result, you may want to enable auto-updates.
To update WordPress core automatically, navigate to Dashboard > Updates. Then, click the following link: Enable automatic WordPress updates for all new versions. WordPress will now download and install all minor and major releases automatically.
To set your plugins to auto-update, navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins. Then, check the Plugin checkbox. Following that, select Enable Auto-Updates > Apply from the Bulk Actions dropdown.
Finally, you can enable WordPress theme auto-updates. Navigate to Appearance > Themes to make this change. Then, with your cursor over the active theme, select Theme Details.
Select Enable auto-updates on the subsequent screen. Your theme will now automatically update whenever a new version is made available.
2. Disable the Theme or Plugin
Zero-day vulnerabilities can affect any project, including the core of WordPress. Themes and plugins, on the other hand, are more prone to security issues.
WP White Security identified nearly 4,000 WordPress plugin vulnerabilities in its 2021 report. Patchstack confirms this discovery, stating that over 70 million WordPress websites are vulnerable due to vulnerable plugins and themes.
Fortunately, zero-day threats in themes and plugins are frequently easier to manage than issues with the core of WordPress. If the original developer has not yet released a patch for the vulnerability, you can always delete the theme or plugin that contains it.
It’s worth noting that simply deactivating this software is not always sufficient. Even when a plugin or theme is deactivated, malicious third parties may still be able to access and exploit sensitive files. As such, we always recommend disabling and then deleting the offending software.
Certain themes and plugins are mission-critical for businesses. If your website is dependent on a specific piece of software, removing it may not always be simple.
However, because WordPress has a sizable community of third-party software developers, it is not uncommon for multiple themes and plugins to achieve the same result. Even if you’re not ready to abandon a particular program entirely, you may be able to temporarily disable it and then replace it with an equivalent WordPress plugin or similar theme.
3. Use a Firewall
Numerous security programs successfully identify and block vulnerabilities through the use of pattern matching. They must, however, know what they are looking for. Even the most sophisticated software may struggle to defend against newly discovered threats.
This is not to say that your website is defenseless. Your security software can still prevent attacks that are launched as a result of a zero-day vulnerability being exploited. A firewall, in particular, can protect your WordPress website from a variety of common attacks, including SQL injections and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks.
There are several options available when it comes to firewalls. If you have an unmanaged Virtual Private Server (VPS), a cloud-based VPS, or an unmanaged dedicated server, you can use an Advanced Policy Firewall to secure your system (APF). This allows you to grant and deny access to resources based on their IP addresses.
Alternatively, you can use iptables to create IP-based access rules. Additionally, you can use the iptables utility to grant and deny access to specific devices. This gives you complete control over all traffic entering and exiting your server, including TCP and Secure Shell (SSH) connections.
Additionally, you can use a plugin such as Wordfence Security. This Web Application Firewall (WAF) performs malware scans on your website’s core files, themes, and plugins. Additionally, it monitors your website for malicious redirects and code injections, which may indicate the presence of an underlying zero-day vulnerability.
To avoid false positives, it’s critical to leave Wordfence in Learning Mode for at least a week following the firewall’s activation. This enables the plugin to gather all of the data necessary to defend your site without incorrectly flagging legitimate actions as suspicious.
4. Monitor Your Site for Suspicious Behavior
As with a firewall, a security log cannot protect your website directly from zero-day vulnerabilities. It may, however, assist you in identifying suspicious behavior and traffic.
WP Activity Log is a well-known WordPress plugin that keeps track of various activities. This plugin will add an entry to your activity log whenever someone modifies your WordPress settings, themes, plugins, or database.
Additionally, the WP Activity Log plugin will log any changes to the multisite network. This includes the ability to add, delete, or archive sites, as well as the ability to remove users.
Anyone who creates, modifies, or deletes any of your WordPress files will appear in your activity log as well. If you’re using the free version, you can always view the activity log by going to WP Activity Log > Log View.
This, however, is contingent upon you manually inspecting the Log View. This may result in a delay between the occurrence of suspicious behavior and your recognition of a potential security threat.
If you upgrade to Premium, WP Activity Log will notify you via SMS or email whenever an important change is made to your website. This puts you in a better position to respond to attacks immediately upon their occurrence.
5. Keep Up-to-Date With the Latest Security News
When a vendor learns of a security threat, they immediately notify affected parties via a vulnerability disclosure. This procedure is divisive and frequently contested, as keeping the majority of users safe frequently necessitates delaying the announcement until a fix is available.
This can help to reduce the number of potential hackers who are aware of the security flaw. However, this also means that you may be running insecure software on your website without realizing it.
Additionally, there is the issue of security researchers, who are frequently the ones who discover these flaws. Publicly announcing that they’ve discovered a security vulnerability is excellent advertising for them. Regardless of this incentive, the majority of responsible security researchers reach a deal with the vendor. This frequently entails delaying the publication of their report until a solution is discovered.
However, some zero-day vulnerabilities are disclosed prior to the release of a patch. Worse, a security flaw may become public knowledge without the vendor being notified. This is especially common when a malicious third party discovers the loophole first. These individuals will typically want as many hackers to profit from their discovery as possible.
Regardless of your position on the subject, if a vulnerability becomes widely known, you’ll want to be aware of it. It’s beneficial to keep an eye on popular WordPress security blogs such as Sucuri WordPress Security, the official WordPress blog, and the Wordfence blog.
For the most up-to-date information, you can also follow these sites on social media or subscribe to the WP Security Blogger aggregator. Another possibility is to set up a Google Alert for terms and phrases associated with WordPress security.
6. Join a Disclosure Mailing List
There are numerous mailing lists dedicated to the exchange of vulnerability disclosures, but one of the most popular is Full Disclosure. By subscribing to this mailing list, you will receive email alerts about new security threats.
However, because Full Disclosure is not a list specific to WordPress, you may become overwhelmed by updates. Assuming your concern is sole with threats to the WordPress platform, we recommend configuring some email filters.
This can help ensure that if you do receive a Full Disclosure notification, you can act promptly. Additionally, you may wish to join Wordfence’s WordPress Security Mailing List.
7. Choose a Secure Hosting Provider
No hosting provider can guarantee that your website will be immune to newly discovered vulnerabilities. A good host, on the other hand, will have security features that make it more difficult for attackers to exploit these vulnerabilities.
Consider the following example. A hacker may attempt to launch an XSS attack against your site by exploiting a zero-day vulnerability. Your web host may be completely unaware of this brand-new security vulnerability. They may, however, still be able to thwart the XSS attack. This prevents the hacker from causing damage to your website or stealing your data.
At A2 Hosting, they have a number of security features built-in, including HackScan Protection. This can assist in preventing malicious third parties from wreaking havoc on your website.
A2 Hosting includes KernelCare rebootless updates and a dual firewall as standard, as well as Cloudflare as a CDN. Cloudflare, in particular, is capable of identifying and intercepting malicious requests. This includes requests that could be made in an attempt to exploit zero-day vulnerabilities.
Summary
Because the future is unpredictable, preparing for zero-day vulnerabilities is difficult. Fortunately, by implementing some security best practices now, you can significantly reduce your site’s vulnerability to all types of attacks, including the enigmatic zero-day threat.
Security tools such as loggers and a firewall can make it more difficult for hackers to exploit previously unknown flaws in your system. Additionally, we recommend staying current on core, theme, and plugin news by subscribing to popular WordPress blogs and specialist mailing lists such as Full Disclosure.
With the appropriate tools, techniques, and resources, it is possible to defend against serious zero-day threats. However, your hosting provider selection also matters. A2 Hosting provides a variety of security features to ensure that your website is prepared for anything, including the unknown![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
