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What is WordPress User Enumeration and How to Prevent it?
Quick Summary: WordPress user enumeration attacks are capable of causing a significant amount of harm to organizations' digital assets, like their websites. They take place because of the implementation of weak security. Learning how to stop user enumeration attacks is indispensable; that's why we've created this article for you. This article covers all the detailed information about WordPress user enumeration attacks and how to fix them with robust security practices. Read this article to gain insights about user enumeration simply and effectively.
It's 2025, and WordPress continues to dominate the content management system (CMS) market, covering over 63.0% of the market share, says Bluehost. This content management system powers 474 million websites, as per the latest research by WPZoom.
These metrics speak volumes about WordPress, but at the same time, there are certain security challenges that pose significant risks to WordPress-powered websites.
Speaking of security challenges, today we are going to talk about one of the most dangerous attacks commonly seen in WordPress-built web apps: WordPress user enumeration.
Before learning robust security practices to stop user enumeration, we need to learn what enumeration is in cyber security and how it can especially affect WordPress CMS. Give this blog a thorough read to learn the practice of preventing hazardous attacks from making your WordPress websites vulnerability-free.
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Table of Contents
- What is WordPress User Enumeration?
- How WordPress User Enumeration Attacks Work?
- What is the Impact of WordPress User Enumeration Attacks?
- Best Prevention Practices for WordPress User Enumeration
- Conclusion
What is WordPress User Enumeration?
WordPress user enumeration is a technique that is used to identify valid usernames of already registered users on the WordPress website. Attackers can misuse these details by systematically making guesswork to obtain usernames using nasty techniques such as accessing author archives or using plugins that accidentally disclose user information.
Attackers then exploit this information by performing attacks like brute-force login attempts to obtain unauthorized access to the website.
How WordPress User Enumeration Attacks Work?
Here's a comprehensive description of how WordPress user enumeration attacks get successfully executed. Understand how they work to enforce high-powered security patches for secured web app development.
1. Author Archives
URL Format: http://example.com/author/username/
How it works: If a WordPress site has a user with the username `john,`
visiting `http://example.com/author/john/`
might display an archive page with posts by `john.`
If the username is verified, the page will load; if not, it will return a 404 error by default.
Enumeration: Attackers can use automated tools to iterate through generic usernames or create usernames on the basis of patterns (e.g., `admin`
, `user1`
, `test`
), checking each URL to see if it returns a valid page.
2. Login Pages
URL Format: http://example.com/wp-login.php
How it works: On the login page, WordPress could provide different responses for valid and invalid usernames. Let's take an example: if you attempt to log in with a valid username but log in with an incorrect password, you will receive an error message saying, "Invalid username" or "The username you entered does not belong to any account."
Enumeration: Attackers can use tools like Burp Suite or a script to submit a list of potential usernames to the login page. They can also carefully notice responses to discover which usernames are valid.
3. REST API
URL Format: http://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/
How it works: If it's not restricted, REST API can reveal users' information. Accessing the `/wp-json/wp/v2/users/`
endpoint can expose user details like usernames if the website does not have robust access controls.
Enumeration: Attackers can misuse vulnerable APIs by creating API requests to the endpoint to access the list of valid users. Even if authentication is needed, some endpoints might still divulge user details under specific configurations.
4. Comment Forms
URL Format: http://example.com/comments
How it works: Some themes or plugins might display the username or author name of comment submitters. If a comment form is publicly accessible and displays usernames, it can help to identify valid users.
Enumeration: Attackers might grate comment sections or make use of automated scripts to collect usernames from comments, which can then be used to create a list of potential targets.
What are the Consequences of WordPress User Enumeration Attacks?
Let's understand how WordPress user enumeration attacks impact websites and web applications and cause organizations to bear unpleasant results.
1. Increased Risk of Brute Force Attacks
Brute force attacks are about trying different passwords until the correct password is discovered. Once the attacker gets to know about a registered username, it becomes easier for them to attempt numerous password combinations.
If users' passwords are easily guessable, then the chances of a successful brute-force attack increase. This promotes unauthorized access, which can even lead attackers to gain complete control over the website.
2. Potential for Credential Stuffing
Credential stuffing is an attack when attackers misuse the credentials that were leaked earlier due to other data breaches to attempt logins. If users have used the same password across multiple websites, then it may increase the likelihood of credential-stuffing attacks.
3. Risks of Data Breach
Once the attacker obtains access to an account, especially an admin account, they become eligible to access, modify, remove the website's content, manage user accounts, or inject malicious code.
User enumeration attacks can cause breaches of data that lead to the exposure of confidential data and the defacement of the website where it's altered or damaged.
4. Increased Targeting of Privileged Account
Attackers primarily focus on high-level privilege accounts like administrator's accounts, as administrators' accounts generally have complete control over the website.
If attackers' attempts are successful in obtaining access to the admins' accounts, they can lead to severe repercussions such as site-wide malware installation, complete data loss, or control over user interactions.
5. Social Engineering Opportunities
With valid usernames, attackers can create more persuasive phishing emails or social engineering schemes. For instance, they might imitate someone who belongs to the organization or use information extracted from the website to dupe users into divulging passwords or performing malicious actions.
It can cause further credential compromises, unauthorized transactions, or other security breaches.
6. Adverse Effect on Website Performance
As WordPress user enumeration attacks are all about repetitive attempts to access registered users' credentials, these nasty attempts cause a significant load on the server.
The repercussions of such attempts are decreased performance, slower response times, or downtime.
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Best Prevention Practices for WordPress User Enumeration
Let's get a detailed idea about these defensive WordPress security measures that help you prevent WordPress user enumeration attacks.
1. Disable Author Archives
WordPress generates author archives for its users by default. This can sometimes reveal usernames when accessed.
By disabling these author archives, you can seize away the chance that attackers generally take to verify usernames. This can be accomplished by intercepting requests to author URLs and redirecting or blocking them.
2. Restricting Access to REST API
REST API automatically allows external applications to interact with WordPress, and it leads to the exposure of users' sensitive data through some endpoints.
Limiting or securing access to these API endpoints intercepts unauthorized users from accessing users' information. This ensures the robust security of APIs by enforcing uncompromising accessibility.
3. Enforcing Login Attempt Limits
If repetitive login attempts are witnessed, then there could be a sign that attackers are trying to invade through brute force attacks.
By limiting the number of failed login attempts and blocking IP addresses with excessive login attempts, you can effectively decrease the chances of data breaches through brute force attacks and stop user enumeration in WordPress.
4. Implementing 2-Factor Authentication
2-factor authentication enhances the process of authentication. With this method, the verification is done beyond the username and password, such as a code sent to a mobile device.
By implementing 2FA, you can relatively alleviate the risk of unauthorized access even if the attackers manage to obtain valid user credentials.
5. Disabling XML-RPC API
XML-RPC is a tool in WordPress that allows external systems to interact with your website. However, attackers can also exploit it to guess usernames and passwords, which typically leads to unauthorized access.
Disabling XML-RPC fails the attackers' purpose of leveraging these APIs to perform attacks.
6. Optimizing Web Applications Firewalls
A Web Application Firewall (WAF) observes and filters incoming web traffic to block potential threats such as user enumeration attacks. This helps to safeguard your website from unauthorized access and malicious activities.
Web application firewalls can help you block malicious requests by assessing abnormal behavior on the basis of predefined behavior patterns, which is quite useful in preventing unauthorized access.
7. Hiding or Obfuscating Usernames
By unintentionally revealing usernames in URLs, forms, or error messages, developers often leave chances for attackers to discover which usernames are valid on your website.
Obfuscating or hiding usernames helps modify or mask URLs and error messages so that usernames are not easily accessible to unauthorized users.
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WordPress user enumeration is considered one of the most impactful threats to website and app security. But by practicing proper mitigation measures and updates, you can create unfailing security for your digital infrastructure.
To fix WordPress user enumeration and prevent it in the future with 100X stronger security, you need to adopt smart tools for advanced security. That's when ZeroThreat comes into play. ZeroThreat is an advanced vulnerability assessment tool that does its job of scanning potential vulnerabilities at 5X speed. It ensures that users don't need to perform configuration setup before scanning their web apps to assess vulnerabilities, that too with the desired accuracy.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the risks of WordPress user enumeration?
Let's check out the potential risks of WordPress user enumeration:
- Account Discovery
- Brute Force Attacks
- Phishing Attacks
- Confidential Data Exposure
- Social Engineering