How to Perform Penetration Testing in WordPress?

Penetration testing (pen test) is an authorized simulated attack performed on a computer system to evaluate its security.

Penetration testers use tools, techniques, and processes as attackers to find and demonstrate the impacts of weaknesses in a system. In today’s digital landscape, securing websites is of utmost importance, especially for popular platforms like WordPress.

As the most widely used content management system (CMS), WordPress is a prime target for hackers. Performing penetration testing is an essential step to identify vulnerabilities and fortify the security of your WordPress website.

In this blog post, we will guide you through the process of conducting a penetration test in WordPress, helping to protect the site from potential threats.

Impact of Penetration Testing

In a penetration test, the tester will exploit vulnerabilities in your website and systems by breaking security controls. During organized attacks, the tester may accidentally break something important, which may lead to a system outage.

These system outages can happen for a number of reasons, here are two of the most common reasons why they may occur during a penetration test:

Rashness – This may not be intentional but due to inexperience or carelessness. On one hand, an experienced tester is familiar with the systems they are testing and the tools they are using.

On the other hand, an inexperienced tester may misuse their tools which could lead to a system break. 

Unexpected circumstances – System outages can sometimes occur regardless of the tester’s expertise, whether due to software faults in an application or unexpected events such as the misconfiguration of a network device.

Advantages of Penetration Testing

• To find & fix vulnerabilities before hackers exploit them.
• Comply with industry regulations or standards like PCI DSS or HIPAA
• To improve the overall security posture of your organization
• Secure your own and your customer’s sensitive data stored on your site

Some Tools to Perform Penetration Testing

Astra Pentest – Astra Pentest is a powerful, yet easy-to-use vulnerability scanning and both manual and automated pen testing tool that can scan your WordPress site for vulnerabilities in minutes.

It’s also the only pen-testing tool on the market that offers both automated scanning and manual penetration testing capabilities.

WPScan – Novice users and more experienced pen testers use it. This is possible due to its detailed documentation.

It’s perfect for finding low-hanging fruit like hidden settings pages that are accessible without authentication, brute forcing usernames and passwords, and much more.

Burp Suite – This paid tool offers real-time vulnerability detection and goes above and beyond what other tools can do by testing against all potential vulnerabilities. It’s perfect for organizations who want to ensure their website is secure from hackers.

For more details regarding Burp Suite visit Burp Suite.

You may also Hire WordPress Developers for your project work.

Conclusion

Penetration testing is an important measure for any WordPress site owner. It helps you to identify vulnerabilities and improve the security of your site to protect against hackers, data theft, and other malicious attacks.

If you are concerned about your site’s security, it might be time to call in a professional penetration tester today

You may also visit XSS Vulnerabilities regarding test and protection.

Support

That is all for this dev article on how to perform penetration testing in WordPress. For any technical assistance, please raise a ticket or reach us by mail at [email protected]

Find the list of WordPress plugins to add more features to your website. You may also Hire WordPress Developers for your project work.