Wordpress: Prevent Username Enumeration
Strengthen your WordPress site's security by preventing username enumeration with this straightforward snippet.
Username enumeration can be a security risk, as it allows attackers to gain knowledge about valid usernames on a WordPress site. This snippet prevents username enumeration via the author archive URLs.
By intercepting requests to author pages and checking if they contain numeric parameters, the snippet redirects such requests to the homepage, thus thwarting attempts to discover usernames through URL manipulation.
This method enhances the site's security by making it more difficult for attackers to gather information needed for brute force or other types of attacks.
The snippet is easy to integrate into any WordPress theme or plugin and includes instructions on how to add it to the .htaccess file for even stronger security measures.
Additional security tips are provided to further protect against enumeration and other common WordPress security vulnerabilities.
Snippet Code
Version Compatibility
This snippet is applicable to WordPress 2.0 and later, where user role capabilities were introduced.
Required PHP Version
PHP 5.2 or higher
Wordpress Core Functions Used
Use Cases
- security enhancements
- privacy protection
- hacking prevention