[wp-testers] **Maybe OT** Hacking Problem In 2.7.1

[Dougal Campbell]

Paul Robinson wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I hope the title is descriptive enough & I think it's a little off topic so
> I've added that.
>
> Basically for the last 2 maybe 3 weeks I've had stability problems with my
> website, I assumed it was down to server problems & asked my host to check
> it out. Apparently there was no problems. Then the site just stopped working
> & only showing 500 errors. I download the apache error logs & find this:
>
> [...mod_security log msgs...]
>   

That just looks to me like mod_security is doing its job correctly. It's 
showing you that a suspicious request was made, and mod_security blocked 
it according to its rules. This is a Good Thing.

> then after that all processes created by my site a cut by the **shared servers**
> memory limiting script. [...]
>   

(emphasis mine)

It sounds like you're doing all the right things to secure your site. 
But, if you are running on a shared server, then you can't know for sure 
that other users are securing *their* sites. Once an attacker gets 
unauthorized access, even if it's via some *other* virtual host on the 
same server as you, they can potentially start messing with *your* 
stuff. If you find evidence that your WP install has been compromised in 
some way, there's a good possibility that this is what has happened on 
your server.

That why I prefer to use a VPS (virtual private server) or other type of 
dedicated host. Its' a little more expensive (but not unreasonably so), 
but worth the peace of mind that you really have the whole server to 
yourself.

-- 
Dougal Campbell <dougal at gunters.org>
http://dougal.gunters.org/
http://twitter.com/dougal
http://twitual.com/
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