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Word Press Susceptable to DDoS Attacks

Denial of Service
Denial of Service (Pirate Version)

Okay Web Heads, it’s time to put on your upgrade caps and get your websites to the latest Revision of Word Press Code. It seems that there is a flaw in code that it older than June 21, 2012.Here is the full brief as stated by US-Cert and NIST:

Original release date: April 15, 2013

US-CERT is aware of an ongoing campaign targeting the content management software WordPress, a free and open source blogging tool and web publishing platform based on PHP and MySQL. All hosting providers offering WordPress for web content management are potentially targets.

Hackers reportedly are utilizing over 90,000 servers to compromise websites administrator panels by exploiting hosts with admin as account name, and weak passwords which are being resolved through brute force attack methods.

CloudFlare, a web performance and security startup, has to block 60 million requests against its WordPress customers within one hour elapse time. The online requests reprise the WordPress scenario targeting administrative accounts from a botnet supported by more than 90,000 separate IP addresses. A CloudFlare spokesman asserted that if hackers successfully control WordPress servers, potential damage and service disruption could exceed common distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack defenses. As a mitigating strategy, HostGator, a web hosting company used for WordPress, has recommended users log into their WordPress accounts and change them to more secure passwords.

US-CERT encourages users and administrators to ensure their installation includes the latest software versions available. More information to assist administrators in maintaining a secure content management system

include:

* Review the June 21, 2012, vulnerability described in CVE-2012-3791, and follow best practices to determine if their organization is affected and the appropriate response.

* Refer to the Technical Alert on Content Management Systems Security and Associated Risks for more information on securing a web content management system

* Refer to Security Tip Understanding Hidden Threats: Rootkits and Botnets for more information on protecting a system against botnet attacks

* Additional security practices and guidance are available in US-CERTs Technical Information Paper TIP-12-298-01 on Website Security

Relevant URL(s):

<http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2012-3791>

<http://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/tips/ST06-001>

<http://www.us-cert.gov/sites/default/files/publications/TIP-12-298-01-Website-Security.pdf>

<http://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA13-024A>

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Produced by US-CERT, a government organization.

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This product is provided subject to this Notification:

http://www.us-cert.gov/privacy/notification/

Privacy & Use policy:

http://www.us-cert.gov/privacy/

This document can also be found at

http://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/current-activity/2013/04/15/WordPress-Sites-Targeted-Mass-Brute-force-Botnet-Attack

 

 

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