This document discusses securing Joomla websites from hacking. It recommends updating the server operating system, software and Joomla regularly. Hardening the server involves securing Apache, PHP and MySQL as well as adding firewalls and malware detection. Using a content delivery network can prevent DDoS attacks and stop hackers. The Joomla security checklist includes changing admin passwords, limiting super user access, protecting files, removing unused extensions and using two-factor authentication. Monitoring the site, regular backups and knowing how to restore from backups prepares for potential hacking incidents.

1. By Shaiffulnizam Mohamad
JOOMLA! SECURITY
...Security is a moving target, so
today's expert might be tomorrow's
victim...

2. Joomla!
Website’s
hacked?

3. Definition of “Hacker”
• Someone who deliberately seeks to bypass a server’s security
• Black, grey, white hats
• A hacked site is a broken/compromised site
• A skilled computer programmer
• A hacked site is a tweaked and improved site
• A script kiddie
• Junior hacker using other hacker’s tools and techniques

4. Hacking Motives?
• To see if they can
• To create mayhem
• For social standing in the sub-culture
• For political reasons – hacktivism
• For financial reasons
• Theft – steal ebooks, videos, games, online services etc
• Sell data – user profiles, credit card details etc
• Industrial sabotage - paid to break competitor sites
• Set up zombie farms
• Steal bandwidth
• Host phishing pages
• Collect passwords

5. How do we know that
we’ve been hacked?
• Site trashed
• Hacking message
• High bandwidth use
• Changed admin password
• New user with admin rights
• Server logs

6. Why do we care about
computer security?

7. No ONE is
SAFE!Type of site Motivation
Any site To see if they can
To create mayhem
Social standing
Post political messages
Zombie farms
Steal bandwidth
Host phishing pages
Any membership site Sell user profiles to marketers
Obtain usernames and passwords
Some ecommerce sites Sell credit card details to thieves
Sell order history and contact details to
marketers

8. Why worry about being
hacked?
• Sites are targeted at random
• Hacking is actually quite easy
• Vulnerable sites are easy to find
• Vulnerable sites are easy to hack
• Fixing hacked sites is quite tricky
• Hacks can be invisible
• Clients may not notice a hacked site for some time
• Finding a clean backup may be impossible
• Determining what has been done can be really hard
• May be difficult to restore
• Hardening site to avoid future hacks requires skill and focus

9. Why worry about being
hacked?
Hacked sites are a big problem
• Business reputation
• Angry clients
• Site shutdown by host
• Loss of business
• Data theft

10. Hacking Joomla! sites

11. Is Joomla! Sites easy to
hack?• Yes and No
• Joomla has to strike a balance between
security and ease of use
• Joomla an attractive target for hackers
• The critical mass of sites
• Large amateur web developer user base
• Extensions have variable security
• The site must be vulnerable

12. How do they hack?
1. Find a vulnerability (and instructions
on how to exploit it)
2. Find a vulnerable site
3. Hack the site

13. 1st Finding vulnerability
• Security sites
• www.exploit-db.com, www.secunia.com
• Various hacking sites/forums
• Joomla vulnerable extensions list
• docs.joomla.org/Vulnerable_Extensions_List

14. 2nd find a vulnerable
sites• Google Dork - a search phrase to find
vulnerable sites
• PHPInfo
• intitle:phpinfo()
• Vulnerable extensions
• allinurl:com_acajoom

15. 3rd cut n paste code!
http://xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/index.php?option=com_acajoom
&act=mailing&task=view&listid=1&Itemid=1&mailingid=1/*
*/union/**/select/**/1,1,1,1,concat(username,0x3a,passw
ord),1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1/**/from/**/jos_users/*
*/LIMIT/**/1,1/*

16. Sometimes…
RFI = Remote file inclusions
Executing SHELL Files and taking control of the Server

17. What should we do to
prevent?
• Server operating system
• Server Software
• PHP + MySQL
 Joomla
 Extensions
 Users and their behaviour
Joomla! Security Involves

18. What should we do to
prevent?
1. Updating Your Server Operating System
2. Update your Server Software e.g. Apache, Nginx,
IIS, Litespeed etc
3. Update Your PHP & MySQL Server
4. Secure Your Server
Security Action plan

19. [1] Basic actions
[2] More complex actions
[3] Actions that require significant modification rights
on the server (unless already implemented by
default)
Image by echiner1
What should we do to
prevent?

20. Joomla! Security
Server ~ shared, VPS and Dedicated
• A shared server
• Your site(s) live in the same hosting space as other sites that you
do not administer
• This is the cheapest hosting option.
• No say over the security of the other sites on the server
• Old shared server is the worst location for your hosting
• A Virtual Private Server
• Better than shared
• Still can’t change many settings

21. Joomla! Security
Server ~ shared, VPS and Dedicated
• A dedicated server
• Allow you to upgrade and tweak all the settings on a dedicated server
• Host retains responsibility for maintenance

22. Joomla! Security
Server ~ Security
1. The underlying Operating System must be updated
2. Updating the Webserver
e.g. Apache, Nginx etc
3. Updating the PHP and MySQL
4. Securing the Above
5. Installing additional Security layers

23. Joomla! Security
Server ~ Security Hardening
1. Securing Apache Webserver
Adding web headers to block XSS etc.
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header set X-XSS-Protection: "1; mode=block"
Header set X-Content-Security-Policy: "allow 'self'; options inline-script; img$
Header set Strict-Transport-Security: "max-age=43200; includeSubDomains"
Header set Cache-Control: "max-age=3600, public, must-revalidate"
Header set X-frame-options: "deny"
Header set X-Content-Type-Options: "nosniff"
#Header set X-Content-Security-Policy: "default-src 'self'"
Header unset X-Powered-By
Header unset X-Pingback
</IfModule>
2. Hide Server Signature

24. Joomla! Security
Server ~ Security Hardening
3. Activating .htaccess override in Apache conf
• .htaccess files
• [1] Activate the htaccess file in the Joomla root
• [1] Use an .htpasswd for the /administrator/ folder
• [3] Advanced .htaccess files

25. Joomla! Security
Server ~ Security Hardening
1. Hardening PHP with SUHOSIN
2. Use PHP Disable function
show_source, system, shell_exec, passthru, exec, phpinfo,
popen, proc_open
3. Do not expose PHP Version expose_php = off
4. Use open_basedir (restriction file handling functions)

26. Joomla! Security
Server ~ Security Hardening
• Globally reset all files
• Owner – AccountUsername:AccountUsername
chown -R user:group *
• Files – 644
find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} ;
• Folders – 755
find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} ;
Use suPHP
PHP files are run under the user of the website instead of the Apache user

27. Joomla! Security
Server ~ Security Hardening
1. Hardening MySQL server
2. Disable access from outside (allow local connections)
3. Make sure using Password or after setup, run
mysql_secure_installation command

28. Joomla! Security
Server ~ Additional Security Hardening
1. Add additional firewall e.g. CSF firewall
2. Add modsecurity firewall ~
apache module that helps to protect your website from various attacks. It
is used to block commonly known exploits by use of regular expressions
and rule sets
3. Install Malware detector such as maldet
4. Install rootkit detector
5. Install fail2ban / IDS (intrusion detector)

29. Joomla! Security
Use CDN for security
1. Prevent DDOS
2. Stop Hackers
3. Secure website from attack

30. Joomla! Security
Use CDN for security
1. Prevent DDOS
2. Stop Hackers
3. Secure website from attack

31. Joomla! Security
Use CDN for security

32. Joomla! Security
Use CDN for security

33. Joomla! Security Checklisthttps://docs.joomla.org/Security

34. Upgrade to the latest stable version of Joomla! as soon as possible.
Download Joomla! from official sites only, such as JoomlaCode.org, and check the MD5 hash.
Use Web Page Diagnostic Tools, i.e. Firefox Firebug, IE Web Developer Toolbar, Opera
Dragonfly, etc. to ensure that all files were installed correctly.
Joomla! Security Checklisthttps://docs.joomla.org/Security
Install official versions of Joomla!
http://www.joomla.org/download.html
Install official Updates from Joomla!
To avoid breaking your site, search the forums for reports of
incompatible extensions before upgrading to a new version of Joomla.

35. Joomla! Security Checklisthttps://docs.joomla.org/Security
Default administrator username
Change the user name of the default admin user. This simple step
effectively increases the security of this critical account 50% by
modifying one of the two variables attackers must know to gain
access.
Never use easy to guess passwords, avoid at no cost.
e.g. admin123, passwords, 123456
Use mix characters (upper and lower case) with special characters.
e.g F1$hn3Tw0Rk, use more than 8 digits
Administrator passwords

36. Joomla! Security Checklisthttps://docs.joomla.org/Security
Limit superadmin
Less superadmin, mean less problem
Disable registration, if you are not running social sites, or if your
website is limited to your employee
If you are not running Social site, disable registration

37. Joomla! Security Checklisthttps://docs.joomla.org/Security
Protecting directories and files
All configurable path must be rewritable
Must never use chmod 777, chmod 755 is sufficient for directories
and 644 for files. Use .htaccess to disable directories such as
images and download from running php files.
# secure directory by disabling script execution
AddHandler cgi-script .php .pl .py .jsp .asp .htm .shtml .sh .cgi
Options -ExecCGI

38. Joomla! Security Checklisthttps://docs.joomla.org/Security
Remove all unneeded files and extensions
All unneeded and unused files and extensions must be remove
In general, do not leave any unneeded files (compressed or otherwise) on a public server.
Each unused (and perhaps long forgotten) file is a potential security hole.

39. Joomla! Security Checklisthttps://docs.joomla.org/Security
Installing Joomla! Extensions
1. Always backup
2. Check for extension vulnerabilities
3. Download from trusted site
4. Check code quality of the extensions
5. Test on development site
6. Remove junk
7. Avoid encrypted code

40. Joomla! SecurityHow to secure Joomla!
[1] SEF all URLs
[2] Clear the default Joomla metatags
[3] Clear the default Home page title
[4] Remove generator tag
[5] Change favicon
[6] Hide component credits
Less information provided about Joomla!, means
much difficult to attack

41. Joomla! SecurityHow to secure Joomla!
Two-Factor Authentication is a login method whereby a
person has to provide his/her user name, password and
a random generated OTP (One Time Password).
OTP is six numeric digit code, generated by
cryptographic functions in a short interval. Even if a
hacker was to guess your Joomla Administrator
username and password correctly, they would still
require the OTP to login.
To enabled Two-Factor Authentication requires Joomla
3.2.0 or higher.
1.Login into the Administration area.
2.Click on Components >> Post-installation Messages.
3.Click on Enable two-factor authentication.
4.Install a Google Authenticator compatible client for
your device.
Implement 2 factor Authentication

42. Joomla! SecurityHow to secure Joomla!
Trying to inject spam content onto your site
Targets Joomla core forms and extension forms
Use captcha to fight against automated
spammers

43. Joomla! SecurityHow to secure Joomla!
Use security extensions

44. Joomla! SecurityHow to secure Joomla!
Disable FTP access from Joomla!
• If a hacker can obtain your FTP
password, they can login as you,
bypassing almost every security barrier.
• FTP passwords are stored unencrypted
in your FTP program!
• FTP authentication details pass
unencrypted to the server!
• There are several common FTP apps
that store their passwords in a
standard location with a standard
name!

45. Joomla! SecurityHow to secure Joomla!
Change temporary folder and logs path

46. Joomla! SecurityHow to secure Joomla!
Make sure to check for Joomla!/extensions
Update

47. Joomla! SecurityHow to secure Joomla!
Preparing for the Worst
Are you ready?

48. Joomla! SecurityHow to secure Joomla!
Preparing for the Worst
1. Site monitoring
2. Joomla site backups
3. Restoring a hacked site

49. Joomla! Security Site monitoring
• Diagnostics
• Site down
• Home page content changes
• Mod_security logs (shows attempts)
• Bandwidth use
• Spam blacklisting
• [3] Searching and browsing server logs

50. Joomla! Security Joomla!
Backup
• Why backup?
• When should I backup my Joomla! site?
• How often should I backup my Joomla! site?
• How to backup?

51. Joomla! Security Joomla!
Backup
How to backup?
1. Manual backup through command line. (database)
2. Using extensions such as Akeeba Backup, EJB and XCloner
What to backup?
1. All files
2. Images or docs
REMEMBER TO TEST YOUR BACKUP

52. • Fixes the obvious problems
• Does not address:
• Hidden hacks
• Shell scripts
• Backdoors
• Zombies
• Continuing vulnerabilities
• Impacts of data exposure
Photo: flickr.com/photos/andreweason
Joomla! Security

53. The End
Shaiffulnizam Mohamad
OWASP Members since 2010
Involved in all Joomla Day Malaysia since
2007
Specializing in Joomla! And Security.
shaifful.md@gmail.com / 0129531452
Joomla! Security