Some Q & A
Gonna start posting or deleting all of my old drafts just to clean things up back here in the Admin Area. For example, here is a post that I wanted to flesh out with specific examples and all sorts of references, but it’s just been sitting and waiting for too long, so now I’m just gonna post it as-is. Enjoy or not, here it is.. Continue reading »
Stop User Enumeration in WordPress
This tutorial explains how to block user-enumeration scans in WordPress. As explained in greater depth here, user enumeration happens when some malicious script scans a WordPress site for user data by requesting numerical user IDs. For example, requests for author=1 through some number, say, author=1000, may reveal the usernames for all associated users. With a simple enumeration script, an attacker can scan your site and obtain a list of login names in a matter of seconds. Continue reading »
WordPress Performance Issue Revisited
Following up on my recent performance report with essentially some conclusive results. Turns out that the reported issue is related more directly to the version of PHP than to the version of WordPress. So in other words, WordPress runs a bit faster on newer versions of PHP. As explained previously, after I upgraded my sites to WordPress 4.4, Googlebot reported slightly longer load times for my pages. The slower loading average was seen across numerous sites, and it looked like […] Continue reading »
They’re Scanning for Your Backup Files
Just a reminder to keep your backup files offline. Do not store them in any publicly accessible space. It’s just not worth the risk man. And if you’re working online, you should know this already. If not, then continue reading to learn why it’s absolutely mission critical. Continue reading »
Brute-Force Login Drip Attack
I’ve been noticing a new strategy for brute-force login attacks: the slow, incremental “drip” attack. Instead of slamming a login page with hundreds or thousands of brute-force login attempts all within a few minutes, some attackers have been taking a more low-key approach by slowing down the rate of login attempts in order to bypass security measures. The “drip” brute-force attack is extremely annoying, and possibly dangerous if any of your registered users are using weak login credentials. This article […] Continue reading »
OS X TotalFinder Alternatives
For years, I enjoyed the advanced Finder functionality provided by BinaryAge’s excellent app, TotalFinder. Mac’s native Finder enables users to navigate and manage their files, similar in concept to Windows File Explorer. Unfortunately, as explained in my rant about things that suck about Mac, TotalFinder no longer is compatible with Mac 10.11+. Fortunately there are plenty of decent alternatives to TotalFinder, even if you’re running the latest version of Mac OS X. Continue reading »
WordPress Plugin: Dashboard Widgets Suite
1 Plugin. 9 Widgets. Awesome Dashboard. Over the years, I’ve assembled a collection of Dashboard widgets that I use frequently on various sites. I find the WordPress Dashboard to be a convenient location for posting notes, viewing debug and error logs, and displaying social media icons, RSS feeds, and other useful information. I find these widgets essential, but I was spending way too much time installing and managing them on all of my sites. Continue reading »
Stop RSSing.com from Framing Your Content
This quick post explains how to stop the notorious site scrapers, RSSing.com, from stealing your content. In fact, this technique can be used to stop virtually any site that uses HTML frames to scrape your pages. Once again, the solution is one line of .htaccess to the rescue. Continue reading »
Use Strong Usernames for Better Security
Image courtesy of eChunks.com Here is a quick security tip for people using popular apps on the Web. That is, apps like WordPress that may be widely used and targeted by bad actors and/or automated scripts. It’s all about adding another layer of security by hardening admin-level usernames.. Every now and then, I get an email letting me know that someone has requested a password reset for one of my admin-level WordPress accounts. Usually, the email notifications are sent directly […] Continue reading »
Things that kinda suck about Apple/Mac
I dove into the world of Apple/Mac over five years ago. Overall I think it’s a huge step up from anything Windows related, but there are some things that I feel kinda suck about Mac OS X and Apple products in general. This post rounds up some of my thoughts, hopefully to help promote discussion and encourage some much-needed improvement. Continue reading »
How to Block Baidu Bot
A user of my 6G Firewall recently asked how to block the “baidu” bot from accessing their site. This post explains why Baidu is not blocked in 6G and provides a quick .htaccess technique to deny it (or anything claiming to be it) access to your site. Continue reading »
What Chrome Predictive URLs Look Like on the Server
Awhile ago, I was confused by repetitive 404 “Not Found” errors in my server logs. The 404 requests look like someone is typing out various words, a few letters at a time. This post shows what these weird 404s look like from the server’s perspective, and then goes on to explain why they happen and why there is no practical way of preventing them. Continue reading »
WordPress Performance Issue?
Just wanted to share a mysterious trend reported for my sites by Google Webmaster Tools, and ask if anyone else is seeing the same pattern. It looks like it’s related to the WordPress 4.4 update, but I’m not 100% sure, so putting the data out there in hopes that others can help shed some light on the issue.. Continue reading »
Example of a Spoofed Search Engine Bot
While solving the recent search engine spoofing mystery, I came across two excellent examples of spoofed search engine bots. This article uses the examples to explain how to identify any questionable bots hitting your site. Continue reading »
Coda 2 Lessons Learned
I recently switched over to Panic’s Coda 2 for code editing and SFTP functionality. After using my previous editor/FTP software for over 10 years, I was surprised that learning Coda 2 happened so easily. It literally took me like two days of using it before I was back up to full development speed. In the process of learning, I discovered numerous questions and concerns that weren’t covered in the Coda 2 documentation or anywhere online. This post rounds up these […] Continue reading »
Analyzing Weird 404 Search Engine Requests
Lately I’ve been getting a significant number of really weird 404 requests for one of my sites. At first I ignored them. Then upon closer inspection, I realized that the requests were reporting user agents like Googlebot, Bingbot, and other top search engines. So there was cause for concern. You don’t want legitimate search engines tripping over endless 404 requests that are completely unrelated to your site content. That gets into “negative SEO” territory, and should be investigated and resolved […] Continue reading »
