WordPress Setup

WordPress Best Practices

• Keep Wordpress Core and all plugins and themes updated
• Remove all unused plugins and themes
• Practice good password hygiene
  • Use strong passwords
  • Do not reuse passwords
  • Enable two-factor authentication where possible
  • Use a trusted password manager such as 1Password

Recommended WordPress Toolkit Settings

Updates

Update Settings

Recommended update settings for WordPress core, plugins, and themes:

• Update WordPress automatically
  • Yes, but only minor (security) updates: With this setting you will only get security updates automatically and will have to install major/feature updates yourself. This is the absolute minimum recommended setting.
  • Yes, all (minor and major) updates: With this setting all updates will be installed. You will need to check your site after a major update to make sure nothing has been broken by the update. If you have a simple site without many 3rd party plugins or themes this is recommended.
• Update plugins automatically
  • Defined individually, but security updates are autoinstalled: Autoupdate settings for each plugin are followed, vulnerable plugins will be updated automatically regardless of their settings. This is the minimum recommended setting.
  • Forced: All plugins will be autoupdated regardless of their settings. This is the preferred setting.
• Update themes automatically
  • Defined individually, but security updates are autoinstalled: Autoupdate settings for each theme are followed, vulnerable themes will be updated automatically regardless of their settings. This is the minimum recommended setting.
  • Forced: All themes will be autoupdated regardless of their settings. This is the preferred setting.

Minimum Security

Minimum Security Settings

Enact the following WP Toolkit Security recommendations (at a minimum):

• Restrict access to files and directories
• Block directory browsing
• Block unauthorized access to wp-config.php
• Disable PHP execution in cache directories
• Block access to sensitive files
• Forbid execution of PHP scripts in the wp-includes directory
• Forbid execution of PHP scripts in the wp-content/uploads directory
• Block access to .htaccess and .htpasswd

Recommended Security

Preferred Security Settings

Enact these security settings in addition to the above:

• Configure security keys
• Disable scripts concatenation for WordPress admin panel
• Turn off pingbacks
• Change default database table prefix
• Enable bot protection
• Block access to potentially seneitive files
• Change default administrator's username

Addon Domains

When setting up Addon domains (especially for Worpress installations) we recommend the Addon domains be placed outside your primary public_html folder. This helps prevent cross contamination of Wordpress installations if one of them gets infected with malware.