Security Practical
Choosing authentication: cookies, application passwords, tokens
These three differ in threat model, not convenience. Whether the caller is a browser, your own server, or a third party decides the answer for you.
Technote
Security
Vulnerabilities, hardening, permissions, login protection and backups — closing the routes into a WordPress site one at a time.
13 articles· Security
Security Practical
wp-config and secrets: keeping per-environment values out of the repo
A committed secret is a leaked secret. Rewriting history does not take it back, and the only remaining fix is rotation.
Security Practical
The first hour after you discover a compromise
The most common mistake in this moment is deleting things in a hurry. Here is what to stop first, what to preserve, and in what order to recover…
Security Practical
Designing access when the team starts to grow
If everyone is an administrator, nobody is. Roles exist not to inconvenience people but to limit how far a mistake can travel.
Security Practical
Making repeated login attempts pointless
Rate limiting and moving the login URL are recommended in the same breath, but they do different jobs. Here is an honest account of what each one does…
Security Practical
SSL is on, so why is there no padlock?
The certificate is fine, yet the address bar shows a warning. The cause is usually one leftover http:// inside the page — and there is a set order…
Security Practical
How far a nearly-free backup really reaches
The question is not whether you have a backup but how many hours it takes to be back. A free setup goes a long way — as long…
Security Practical
What actually belongs in a privacy policy
Copy someone else's policy and you end up declaring data you never collect. There are really only five questions to answer.
Security Practical
A backup you have never restored is not a backup
Sites are lost with backups in place. Usually not because the backup was missing but because nobody ever checked the conditions for restoring it — an hour's work.
Security Practical
Setting up account recovery before you are locked out
Recovery paths cannot be created once you are already locked out. Domain, hosting and the site administrator — thirty minutes today covers all three.
Security Intro
What happens while you put off updates
A vulnerability sits quietly and then, one day, becomes public. A clock starts at that moment — and it stops when you press update.
Security Intro
What one properly made admin account prevents
The login screen is the most-knocked door on your site. Get the username, the password and the second factor right and most of that knocking becomes pointless.