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While WordPress has increased in popularity over the years, the program is not without flaws. Due to its status as an open source platform, the software has various holes in its security – a fact that came under discussion recently in the wake of thousands of WordPress-based sites being used as DDoS (denial of service) zombies.
Online security service Securi has reported that pingbacks providing backlinks to specific blog posts on WordPress sites have been manipulated, with anonymous hackers seeking to drive a broad distribution of DDoS attacks.
The company has been keeping track of the issue, highlighting an attack involving more than 160,000 WordPress websites that drove hundreds of IP requests to the one site.
Security operations expert Sean Power, who works for DOSarrest, explained that hackers are sometimes able to take advantage of the vulnerabilities present with older versions of the program.
Speaking further, Power said this is not a new issue, as it was first acknowledged around seven years ago. He said that the fix for the security hole was released in WordPress version 3.5.1 in January.
Power continued by saying that the recent attack demonstrates how many users fail to keep their WordPress sites up to date; if that was not the case, according to Power, the flaw in the system – which is now resolved – could not be exploited for DDoS attacks.
Until users do start keeping their software up to date, it is a good idea for those who apply for information security vacancies to update their CVs and include WordPress security knowledge.
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