Login Security Solution

Installation Instructions

1. Before installing this plugin, read the FAQ!

2. If your WP install is behind a proxy or load balancer, please be aware
   that this plugin uses the REMOTE_ADDR provided by the web server
   (as does WordPress’ new comment functionality and the Akismet plugin).
   If you want our brute force tracking to work, we advise adjusting your
   wp-config.php file to manually set the REMOTE_ADDR to a data
   source appropriate for your environment. For example:

       $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] = preg_replace('/^([^,]+).*$/', '1',
           $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']);
   

3. Download the Login Security Solution zip file from WordPress’ plugin
   site: https://wordpress.org/plugins/login-security-solution/

4. Unzip the file.

5. Our existing tests are very effective, catching all of the 2 million
   entries in the Dazzlepod password list. But if you need to block
   specific passwords that my tests miss, this plugin offers the ability
   to provide your own dictionary files.

   Add a file to the pw_dictionaries directory and place those passwords
   in it. One password per line.

   Please be aware that checking the password files is computationally
   expensive. The following script runs through each of the password
   files and weeds out passwords caught by the other
   tests:

       php utilities/reduce-dictionary-files.php
   

6. If your website has a large number of non-English-speaking users:

   • See if a keyboard sequence file exists in this plugin’s
     pw_sequences directory for your target languages. The following steps
     are for left-to-right languages. (For right-to-left languages, flip the
     direction of the motions indicated.)

     • Open a text editor and create a file in the pw_sequences
       directory
     • Hold down the shift key
     • Press the top left character key of the keyboard.
       NOTE: during this entire process, do not press function, control
       or whitespace keys (like tab, enter, delete, arrows, space, etc).
     • Work your way across the top row, pressing each key across the
       row, one by one
     • Press the left-most character key in the second row
     • Go across the second row pressing each key
     • Continue through the entire keyboard in the same manner
     • Let go of the shift key
     • Re-start the process at the top left key of the keyboard and
       work your way through the keyboard, now in lower-case mode
     • Save the file and close the editor
     • Feel free to submit the files to me so others can use it. See
       the features request section, below.

   • If a translation file for your language does not exist in this
     plugin’s languages directory, add one. Read
     https://codex.wordpress.org/I18n_for_WordPress_Developers for
     details. The files must use UTF-8 encoding. Send me the file and
     I’ll include it in future releases. See the features request
     section, below.

7. The last step of the new password validation process is checking if
   the password matches an entry in the dict program. See if dict
   is installed on your server and consider installing it if not.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dict

8. Upload the login-security-solution directory to your
   server’s /wp-content/plugins/ directory

9. Activate the plugin using WordPress’ admin interface:

   • Regular sites: Plugins
   • Sites using multisite networks: My Sites | Network Admin | Plugins

10. Adjust the settings as desired. This plugin’s settings page can be
    reached via a sub-menu entry under WordPress’ “Settings” menu or this
    plugin’s entry on WordPress’ “Plugins” page. Sites using WordPress’
    multisite network capability will find the “Settings” and “Plugin”
    menus under “My Sites | Network Admin”.

11. Run the “Change All Passwords” process. This is necessary to ensure
    all of your users have strong passwords. The user interface for
    doing so is accessible via a link in this plugin’s entry on
    WordPress’ “Plugins” page.

12. Ensure your password strength by changing it.

Hooks

Login Security Solution provides hooks
in critical methods, allowing you to add custom behaviors.

Compatibility with Other Plugins

• Better WP Security: Their “Enable Login Limits” and “Enable strong
  password enforcement” functionality conflict with our features. The good
  news is we provide more robust protection in those areas and the Better WP
  Security “Settings” page lets you disable those features in their plugin.
  This way you get to enjoy even better security than either plugin alone.

Why should I pick a user name other than “admin”?

The WordPress installation process (currently) defaults to having the
main administrator’s user’s name be “admin.” Many people don’t change it.
Attackers know this, so now all they need to do to get into such sites is
guess the password.

In addition, if you try to log in while your site is being attacked, this
plugin will send you through the password reset process in order to verify
your identity. While not the end of the world, it’s inconvenient.

Where did the “Change All Passwords” interface go?

A link to the page is found in this plugin’s entry in the “Plugins” admin
interface:

• Regular sites: Plugins
• Sites using multisite networks: My Sites | Network Admin | Plugins

I just got hit with 500 failed logins! Why isn’t this plugin working?!?

Let’s turn the question around: “How long did it take to get in those 500
hits?” Chances are it took hours. (Six hours if they’re attacking with one
thread, 2 hours if they’re coming at you with three threads, etc.) If this
plugin wasn’t working, they’d have pulled it off under a minute. Similarly,
without the slowed responses this plugin provides, an attacker given six
hours against your site could probably get in over 170,000 hits.

Anyway, my real question for you is “Did they get in?” I’ll bet not. The
strong passwords this plugin requires from your users lowers the chances of
someone breaking in to just about zero.

And even if they do get lucky and figure out a password, Login Security
Solution realizes they’re miscreants and kicks them out.

Will you provide lock outs / blocks in addition to slow downs?

If you look at it the right way, Login Security Solution provides lockouts
(where “lockout” means “denies access” to attackers.) Below is a comparison
of the attack handling logic used by Limit Login Attempts and Login Security
Solution.

Limit Login Attempts

• Invalid or Valid Credentials by Attacker or Actual User

  1. Process authentication request (check IP address)
  2. Error message: “Too many failed login attempts.” (ACCESS DENIED.)

Note, this approach means an actual user can be denied access for 12 hours after making 4 mistakes.

Login Security Solution

• Invalid Credentials by Attacker or Actual User

  1. Process authentication request (check IP, user name, and password)
  2. Slow down the response
  3. Error message: “Incorrect username or password.” (ACCESS DENIED.)

• Valid Credentials by Attacker

  1. Process authentication request (check IP, user name, and password)
  2. Slow down the response
  3. Set force password change flag for user
  4. Error message: “Your password must be reset. Please submit this form to reset it.” (ACCESS DENIED.)

• Valid Credentials by Actual User

  1. Process authentication request (check IP, user name, and password)
  2. (If user is coming from their verified IP address, let them in, END)
  3. Slow down the response
  4. Error message: “Your password must be reset. Please submit this form to reset it.” (ACCESS DENIED.)
  5. On subsequent request… user verifies their identity via password reset process
  6. User’s IP address is added to their verified IP list for future reference

So both plugins deny access to attackers. But Login Security Solution has
the bonuses of letting legitimate users log in and slowing the attacks down.
Plus LSS monitors user names, passwords, and IP’s for attacks, while all of
the other plugins just watch the IP address.

Won’t the slowdowns open my website to Denial of Service (DOS) attacks?

Yeah, the DOS potential is there. I mitigated it for the most part by
disconnecting the database link (the most precious resource in most
situations) before sleeping. But remember, distributed denial of service
attacks are fairly easy to initiate these days. If someone really wants to
shut down your site, they’ll be able to do it without even touching this
plugin’s login failure process.

Where should I report bugs and feature requests?

Development of this plugin happens on
GitHub.
Please submit
bug and feature requests,
pull requests,
wiki entries
on our GitHub.

Information for Translators

1. Do not commit the .mo files! They get created as part of the
   release process.
2. Translation commits and pull requests should only touch the .po
   file. If you have other changes you wish to see made, please do so
   via separate commits in separate pull requests.
3. When translating a new feature, please make that one commit. If other
   parts of the translation need updating, please make them in a separate
   commit.
4. Please don’t change formatting inside the .po file
5. Run git diff before all commits. Ensure only expected changes
   are being made.
6. Do NOT translate items that have a comment above them saying
   Translation from WordPress. DO NOT TRANSLATE IT IN THIS PLUGIN.
   When starting a new translation, please take a look at an existing
   .po file to see which strings they are. Those phrases are already
   translated in WordPress’ core. Leaving them untranslated here ensures
   consistency with the rest of WordPress.

7. To start a new translation:

   cd languages
   

Adjust “CC” to your country code.

cp login-security-solution.pot login-security-solution-lc_CC.po

Edit the new login-security-solution-lc_CC.po file.

Translation Information for Developers

• To update the .pot file:

  1. WordPress’ makepot utility directory should be in the same directory
     as the login-security-solution directory. If you don’t have this
     setup, here’s what to do:

     • cd into the directory above this one.
     • svn checkout https://i18n.svn.wordpress.org/tools/trunk/ makepot

     • So, now you’ll have:

       parent dir
           |- login-security-solution/
           |- makepot/
       

  2. cd login-security-solution/languages

  3. ./makepot.sh

• Then, bringing the .po files up to date is as easy as:

  1. ./updatepos.sh

• Finally, to update the .mo files for testing or release:

  1. ./makemos.sh