WordPress is the most popular CMS for website builders, but there are still various vulnerabilities in running a WordPress site, from unreliable web hosting to outdated versions of WordPress core and themes.
Malicious users target weak passwords, which are known as brute force attacks. This is where hackers repeatedly try usernames and passwords to access your account until they finally succeed by using “brute force”.
And while setting strong passwords yourself can definitely mitigate this, you may also want to look at a suitable plugin to help. Let’s look at 5 WordPress plugins that can help to prevent brute force attacks.
What is a WordPress Brute Force Attack?
A brute force attack uses automated tools to repeatedly try different username and password combinations until finding the correct credentials. Once hackers gain access to your admin area, they can steal data, install malware, or delete your entire website.
These attacks typically come in two forms:
- Hybrid Attacks: Bots try all possible passwords from a dictionary, starting with common ones like “password” or “123456”
- Credential Stuffing: Hackers reuse stolen credentials from other websites, taking advantage of the fact that 80% of people use the same passwords across multiple platforms
1. Jetpack
Offered by WordPress.com, Jetpack provides a complete solution to protect your WordPress website from bots and malware trying to break weak login passwords. It’s known as the biggest plugins in the brute force protection field.
The plugin also helps with spam filtering and downtime monitoring. On top of that, you can scan malware and record changes to your site. The number of spam comments or malicious attacks blocked on your site will be stored in the Brute force attacks & malware protection – On-demand backups and restores settings page.
Besides brute force protection, Jetpack supports site performance and management too. It involves image optimization, mobile responsive design, as well as advanced site stats and analytics for understanding your audience.
Pros
- Provide numerous features apart from security, including performance and site management
- Offer two-factor authentication (2FA)
Cons
- Request upgrade to use the advanced features
2. Limit Login Attempts Reloaded
While WordPress allows unlimited login attempts to the admin page which creates a big security vulnerability for hackers, this plugin goes against that.
Upon installation and activation, Limit Login Attempts Reloaded enables users to continuously enter their credential information for a certain number of times only. If any IP addresses try to make further logins, they will be blocked immediately.
This plugin reminds visitors about the remaining login attempts. What’s more, they have to wait 10 to 20 minutes before the last login otherwise the account will get banned temporarily.
If you’re running a WooCommerce site, it’s also possible for you to protect the store’s login page, as well having Multi-site capability too.
Pros
- Protect WooCommerce login pages
- Easy to use
- Inform remaining login attempts
Cons
- No 2FA available
- Standard UI
3. Brute Force Login Security, Spam Protection & Limit Login Attempts
Brute Force Login Security, Spam Protection & Limit Login Attempts from Miniorange is highly recommended to stop automatic scripts from accessing your WordPress admin area.
If you need a way to apply the 2-factor authentication, Brute Force Login Security, Spam Protection & Limit Login Attempts is here for help. This plugin brings you the 2-Step Verification feature which adds one more layer of protection to your accounts and helps raise the site security to a higher level.
It’s possible for you to verify emails entered in the login forms. The plugin will connect to the mail server of the registered email to make sure the mailbox exists.
There are other useful features provided by the plugin such as Provides Login Security, User Registrations Security, IP monitoring and IP Blacklisting, DOS attacks protection, and strong password enforcement.
Pros
- Offer various features
- Integrate with social logins
- Verify emails
Cons
- The plugin is relatively new to most users
- There are many setting configurations required
4. Stop Bad Bots
Stop Bad Bots is a WordPress security solution that protects your site from malicious bot traffic without slowing down your site’s performance. Unlike some security plugins that use cloud services or API redirections, Stop Bad Bots works locally on your server so there’s no external routing of traffic that can slow down your site or trigger Google penalties.
The plugin has an extensive database of over 4,800 known bad bots, 8,400 malicious referrers and 3,300 problematic IP addresses. When a suspicious bot tries to access your WordPress site, the plugin blocks it with a 403 Forbidden response and prevents resource consumption and security breaches.
A new feature is the traffic monitoring system with Ajax powered analytics that lets you see both legitimate visitors and malicious attempts. The dashboard shows daily and monthly visit counts, referral sources and page visit metrics so you can see your site’s traffic patterns. You can add visitors to a whitelist or blacklist with one click directly from the logs.
The plugin is smart enough to allow legitimate search engine crawlers like Google, Bing, Facebook and Twitter bots to access your site while blocking known data scrapers like Ahrefs and Semrush bots that can steal your content and hurt your SEO.
Additional protection features:
- Brute force login protection
- User enumeration blocking
- Pingback request blocking
- Rate limiting for bot visits (Premium)
- Protection for comment forms and contact forms
- Integration with Anti Hacker plugin for extra security layers
For WordPress site owners dealing with content scraping, server overload from bot traffic or suspicious login attempts, Stop Bad Bots is the solution without the performance penalties of cloud based security options.
5. Wordfence
Wordfence is one of the most trusted WordPress security solutions with a complete focus on WordPress protection backed by a global security research team. The plugin combines a powerful endpoint firewall with a malware scanner to create a security system designed for WordPress sites.
The WordPress firewall is at the core of Wordfence’s protection. It works at the endpoint level so it integrates directly with WordPress rather than routing traffic through external servers. This prevents encryption breaks and data leaks and effectively identifies and blocks malicious traffic before it can harm your site.
What makes Wordfence so effective is its Threat Defense Feed which provides real-time updates to firewall rules and malware signatures for Premium users (free users get these updates 30 days later). This continuous updating system helps protect against newly discovered threats and vulnerabilities.
The security scanner checks your WordPress core files, themes and plugins for signs of compromise:
- Malware detection
- Bad URL identification
- Backdoor discovery
- SEO spam detection
- Code injection identification
It also checks the integrity of your WordPress files by comparing them with the official WordPress repository and alerts you to any unauthorized changes.
Login security features protect your admin area with two-factor authentication compatible with any TOTP-based authenticator app, CAPTCHA protection and the ability to block administrator logins using known compromised passwords.
Premium users get a security audit log that monitors all security sensitive actions on your site from user creation to plugin installation with tamper-proof remote storage through Wordfence Central. This management dashboard allows site owners to manage security for multiple WordPress installations from one interface.
For sites that need immediate security help, Wordfence offers priority response plans with a global 24/7 dedicated incident response team with 1 hour response time for security incidents.
Which Is Your Plugin to Prevent Brute Force Attacks?
Installing a plugin is a great way to protect your WordPress site against brute force attacks and unauthorized logins. The plugin does this by eliminating the need for password-protected directories or manually adding code to limit access to wp-login.php by IP. Hopefully, one of the plugins mentioned can allow you take control of your device and prevent any brute force attacks.
