As someone who‘s been managing WordPress sites for over 15 years, I‘ve seen the impact that DDoS attacks can have firsthand. When your site gets flooded with malicious traffic, it can grind everything to a halt – causing loss of business, reputational damage, and major headaches.
The good news is, with some smart planning and protection, you can safeguard your WordPress site against DDoS disruptions. This comprehensive guide will equip you with in-depth knowledge to detect and deal with DDoS attacks.
I‘ll share insights drawn from my experience as a WordPress expert to help you keep your site running smoothly in the face of malicious efforts to take it down.
Contents
Why WordPress Sites Are Prime DDoS Targets
Before we get into prevention, it‘s useful to understand why WordPress tends to attract DDoS trouble.
WordPress dominates the web – Powering over 40% of all websites, it provides an extremely large attack surface. Taking down WordPress sites en masse can allow hackers to cause massive disruption.
Third-party elements introduce vulnerabilities – Plugins, themes and web hosts often contain security flaws hackers can exploit to stage their attack.
Many sites use outdated software – Around 85% of WordPress installs run on older versions missing the latest security patches.
WordPress sites rely on hosting providers for uptime – A volumetric DDoS attack can overwhelm the resources of a budget web host.
It‘s easy to automate attacks on WordPress – Script kiddies can simply download DDoS tools to target WordPress sites in bulk.
WordPress sites are lucrative targets for extortion – Hackers can demand ransom from site owners who stand to lose revenue during prolonged attacks.
According to Sucuri, WordPress sites are over 25 times more likely to get hacked than other CMS platforms.
Just as WordPress usage has grown globally, website hacking incidents have also risen in parallel:
DDoS attacks are increasing and peaking at new highs each year. (Source: Cloudflare)
So if you run a WordPress site, there‘s a decent chance your site may face a DDoS threat at some point. But you can change those odds in your favor by being prepared.
Types of DDoS Attacks to Watch Out For
DDoS attacks can be classified based on how hackers misuse network resources to overwhelm your site. Let‘s look at some common DDoS attack types:
Volumetric Attacks
These attacks aim to saturate your network bandwidth by hitting you with a tidal wave of malicious requests.
Volumetric attacks are measured in packets per second (PPS) or bandwidth consumed per second, and can be generated via:
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UDP floods – where the attacker sends random UDP packets to slow down the network.
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ICMP floods – multiple pings bombard the server.
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SYN floods – the attacker initiates TCP connections but leaves many half-open to exhaust resources.
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ACK floods – ACK packets with spoofed addresses overwhelm network devices.
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DNS amplification attacks – the attacker exploits public DNS servers to severely multiply traffic.
Volumetric DDoS attacks are the most common type, making up 72% of all DDoS attacks.
Protocol Attacks
Protocol attacks exploit weaknesses in the TCP, UDP, ICMP communication protocols to overwhelm your web server resources. They do not require large bandwidth itself.
Some examples include SYN floods, Ping of Death, Smurf attacks etc. These attacks can crash systems and impair connectivity.
Application Layer Attacks
These attacks target individual applications on your web server like a CMS, database, webmail etc. This is done by sending only a few well crafted requests to consume excessive amounts of application server resources.
Common techniques used in application layer attacks include:
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Slowloris – opens connections to the server and trickles data slowly to maintain the connection.
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RUDY – rapidly opens then closes connections to apps.
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GET/POST floods – overloads apps with valid repetitive requests.
While application DDoS is low in traffic volume, it can severely diminish application performance.
Why Web Hosting Matters for Security
Your web hosting environment forms the first line of defense against DDoS attacks on WordPress.
Ideally, you need hosting that can:
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Absorb the excess traffic generated by volumetric DDoS attacks so your site stays online.
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Detect anomalies in traffic and usage patterns to identify when an attack is occurring.
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Filter out bad traffic using firewall rules to prevent it from reaching your site.
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Rapidly scale resources like server capacity and bandwidth automatically to handle spikes.
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Mitigate application attacks using measures like rate limiting against excessive requests.
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Offer DDoS mitigation features like traffic throttling and request filtering to counter specific attack types.
Many managed WordPress hosts like WP Engine provide purpose-built hosting optimized for security and performance. Their architecture allows sites to withstand much larger DDoS events.
But even budget shared hosts are upgrading defenses against application-layer DDoS attacks. So check what capabilities your web host offers.
7 Proven Ways to Defend Against DDoS Attacks
Let‘s go over some key strategies and tools you can use to protect your WordPress site against DDoS disruptions:
1. Harden WordPress Core, Plugins and Themes
Keep your software stack fully updated:
✔️ Use the latest WordPress version.
✔️ Regularly update plugins and themes.
✔️ Remove unused plugins & themes.
✔️ Limit plugins only to what‘s essential.
✔️ Use premium plugins from trusted vendors for security-critical functions.
Hackers exploit known software vulnerabilities to stage their attacks. Eliminating these security holes closes off common entry points into your site.
2. Install a Web Application Firewall (WAF)
A WAF inspects traffic and blocks malicious requests intended to overload your site. It adds a key layer of protection to filter DDoS traffic upstream before it reaches your infrastructure.
Some popular WAF options for WordPress include:
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Cloudflare – Offers a free WAF plan with basic DDoS protection.
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Sucuri – WAF specifically built for WordPress sites with advanced DDoS defense capabilities.
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Wordfence – Leading WordPress security plugin with a paid firewall feature.
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Captcha – Prevents automated traffic by requiring human verification.
Enable whichever WAF matches your budget and needs to get started.
3. Increase Infrastructure Capacity
Having robust infrastructure resources allows your site to better absorb the impact of excessive DDoS traffic.
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Upgrade to managed WordPress hosting with adequate server capacity and network bandwidth to handle spikes caused by volumetric DDoS attacks.
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Use a content delivery network (CDN) like Cloudflare to cache and distribute traffic across servers, reducing the load on your origin infrastructure.
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Enable caching at the database, object and page level to serve content faster and lighten database workloads.
With increased capacity, your site stays stable and responsive during floods of malicious traffic.
4. Restrict Unnecessary Traffic
Limit any traffic that‘s not essential for your site‘s functionality. This reduces potential weak spots.
Some examples:
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Disable XML-RPC in WordPress if not using the mobile app.
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Disable REST API if not required for your site.
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Block unwanted IP ranges using .htaccess rules or firewall policies.
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Use rate limiting to curb suspicious traffic spikes from specific IPs.
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Restrict bots using robots.txt and scrapers viaCAPTCHAs.
Every blocked request adds up to frustrate the efforts of attackers.
5. Monitor Traffic for Anomalies
Actively watch for any abnormal spikes or changes in traffic which may suggest an ongoing DDoS attack:
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Use web analytics like Google Analytics to set up alerts for unusual activity.
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Leverage server and application logs to detect request floods.
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Consider dedicated DDoS monitoring tools like Flowmon and Darktrace, if you can justify the cost.
Early attack detection allows you to respond quicker to minimize downtime.
6. Have an Incident Response Plan
Create a written plan for actions you will take if your site gets hit by a DDoS attack. Cover these areas:
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Contact details for your hosting provider, CDN, WAF vendor etc.
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Instructions to activate relevant anti-DDoS measures.
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Communication plan to keep visitors in the loop through social media and support channels.
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Criteria for switching to failover infrastructure if the attack volume is extremely high.
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Plans for posting limited content on a separate domain until services are restored.
With procedures established upfront, you‘ll be able to react swiftly if disaster strikes.
7. Learn from Each Incident
After any DDoS incident, do a post-mortem to identify and address any vulnerabilities or gaps in your defenses.
Ask questions like:
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How did the attack penetrate my existing protections?
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What measures worked effectively, and what failed?
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How can I harden my defenses to prevent this specific attack vector in the future?
Continuous learning allows you to improve and evolve your DDoS resilience over time.
Conclusion
While DDoS attacks present a constant danger, you can harden your WordPress site to minimize disruptions. Leverage a blend of proactive and reactive measures:
- Harden WordPress core, plugins and themes
- Deploy WAF protection
- Scale hosting resources
- Monitor traffic diligently
- Restrict unnecessary access
- Have an incident response plan
DDoS resilience takes vigilance, but the peace of mind is worth the effort. Your visitors expect near-perfect uptime – with robust defenses in place, you can confidently deliver.
Now over to you – what steps are you taking to stop DDoS risk in its tracks? Let me know if you have any other questions!
