Attacks in a WordPress or any other website sounds horrible!! But this is the harsh reality. There is a sudden increase in the usage of illegal activities like hacking, spamming in the internet industry.
Some are very common and basic attacks used for tricking websites and gain access of the website. A newbie in this platform may definitely face some problems related to hacking of database, server, website etc.
Although there are latest web based attacks introduced daily but the good thing is that there are some organizations, individuals, communities who are always ready to fight against all such. They believe in safe and sound web based applications and also secured World Wide Web. :-)
But apart from all that we must also be educated with all the attacks that can take place in a website or the hacking tricks that can execute around us.
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Below hacking techniques are the most basic techniques tried out by attackers:
If you deem it worthy the let’s jump right in:
Vulnerability of Web Based Application
SQL Injection
This is one of the most used mechanisms by hackers to hack a website from any well settled organization or company.
Although there are many definition of SQL injection attack but let’s have a look on the definition offered by Wikipedia:
“SQL injection is a code injection technique, used to attack data-driven applications, in which malicious SQL statements are inserted into an entry field for execution.”
In simple terms it basically takes place when there is a loophole in the web coding of your website, SQL databases, SQL libraries etc. which lets the hackers inject some SQL commands into the loopholes.
Through SQL injection a hacker can directly communicate with your database and would be successful in looking out your login username and password. Hackers are very smart with the SQL injection code and use different ways just to inject it into your website.
So, there is a must need to get appropriate protection from SQL injection attacks. Apart from that the internet industry has developed many efficient SQL injection prevention ways.
Let’s have a view of some examples provided us by W3Schools:
“SQL Injection Based on 1=1 is Always True
SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserId = 105 or 1=1SELECT UserId, Name, Password FROM Users WHERE UserId = 105 or 1=1” “SQL Injection Based on “”=”” is Always True
uName = getRequestString(“UserName”);uPass = getRequestString(“UserPass”);sql = “SELECT * FROM Users WHERE Name ='” + uName + “‘ AND Pass ='” + uPass + “‘” “
Moving further on the next:
Remote File Inclusion (RFI)
This vulnerability is also termed as web application vulnerability and is used by hackers to take full control of the website and the server.
In this hacking technique the attacker uploads a remote file usually included in a manual coded script of the attacker in your servers through which the attacker can take full control of your server and can execute his own codes remotely.
With this technique, the attacker can also implement some more hacking tricks like the Cross Site Scripting, execution of malicious codes and much more.
Remote File Inclusion basically hijacks the ‘dynamic file include’ and with this the hacker can capture all user input parameters and can trap the entire website with their remotely executed codes.
There are many RFI prevention methods but the recommended and most used is the usage of Web Application Firewall.
Cross Site Scripting
Cross-site scripting also abbreviated as XSS or CSS is another type of Web Applications Vulnerability. Cross Site Scripting is also the most common application layer hacking technique implemented by the attackers to trap websites.
The attackers execute this method in the form of any web application to transfer the harmful codes into the webpages using the client side script.
The malicious code is written in HTML/JavaScript which once executed in the user’s browser will automatically read out all sensitive info which the user accesses not only this but the code can also manipulate, modify and transmit it to the attacker.
As per research the term ‘Cross-Site Scripting’ was basically introduced by the giant Microsoft past 15 years ago in 2000 which basically was understood as a third party web application attack to any site.
If there is an attack then it’s obvious that there are also some prevention techniques. You might have to be bit careful like disabling Scripts, clearing out cookies frequently, trying out escaping techniques like Escaping from XSS, CSS, JavaScript etc.
Using Nulled Themes & Codes
WordPress after all provides us many WordPress Themes which includes both premium themes and free themes. Yet, some users still search for some other websites for themes.
Yaa, I know that some website provides us very genuine and impressive themes but SOME not ALL. There are external websites like the Elegant Themes, Theme Forest, StudioPress etc. which have lots of quality themes to look at.
Yet people roam around in search of cheap and decent themes which at last results in the failure of entire database and even entire website.
It is usually some nulled WordPress themes contains malicious codes loaded inside them and are not that easy to look out in one view, this codes once activated attacks and does their job quite efficiently.
Looking for the saving results in more usage of money & time.
A theme becomes Nulled theme when it is operated by someone who makes various changes like the removal of protection from the theme and some more additional features to the theme.
Now after all modification these themes are sold to some sites at low prices and using these they are sold to users also at low prices. This in the long run harms a lot.
Easy Passwords
Huh! This is somewhat the least used hit & trial method by any attacker. Usually, serious hackers do not even try to guess and wait for the odds in favour with this method.
If your website is hacked just only because your password was easy to guess then it would be the worst day for you. But I don’t think that any blogger who owns a website would commit such a basic mistake by inserting easy passwords.
We all know that each & every password must be a combination of various characters and symbols. So, never leave an easy password loophole in your website….Never!! :-|
Recommended Reading if got Hacked:
Online Backup Tools for proper backup of database
Summing Up:
The above mentioned hacking tricks are some example of techniques used by attackers to hack any website. Attackers are so smart that they are capable of developing new attacking methods everyday.
The best way to stop all this is being careful and attentive with the regular updates. Do not keep any basic loopholes that will attract attackers.
The last thing to say – We very well know about the phrase:
“Prevention is better than Cure“