In this article, we are going to introduce you to the concept of brute force attacks and also teach you solutions to deal with this type of attacks. With these methods, you can protect your valuable information on the Internet. So stay with us in this tutorial.

What is a brute force attack?

Brute force attacks, which are carried out by hackers, are a type of cracking attack. In this type of attack, the hacker tries to find your password. In this process, hackers use software with high processing power.

That means, in fact, the hacker attacks the site with millions of username and password combinations; that this attack can be faced with the win or failure of this person by chance. So basically we want to say that these attacks are completely random and there is a possibility that the account will not be hacked by the hacker.

How to perform brute force attacks

In relation to the way Brute Force attacks are carried out, we must say that the planning of this type of hacking is definitely done by humans, but it is beyond the capabilities of humans; Because the passwords stored on the sites usually have 8 characters and consist of numbers, letters and symbols. So combining these and testing them by humans takes millions of years and by computers thousands of years! Therefore, it is not possible to carry out these attacks with humans or computers; Rather, supercomputers are used in this type of attacks!

A hacker definitely does not use the tools that every normal person uses; Rather, he makes his own tool, which is called a supercomputer.

The difference between a normal computer and a supercomputer is that in a supercomputer, GPU is used instead of CPU. In this model, the CPU is actually combined with an extraordinary processor that can multiply the system’s ability; To the extent that this type of attack will take less than a minute!

Target sites of brute force attacks

Now the question arises, what are the target sites of brute force attacks? We must say that the landing pages of all sites can be the target of brute force attacks. In fact, any page that requires a username and password to enter can be attacked. like the:

Social network accounts

All accounts of different social networks such as: Telegram, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, etc. may be subjected to brute force attacks.

Membership user accounts on different sites

All user account entries on various sites such as: movies, music, etc. are also attacked by brute force. Of course, this category is less important than other categories.

Site management accounts

We must say that if you are a site administrator, your input panel is subject to brute force attack, and hackers can attack your site’s input panel at any time.

Electronic messengers

All electronic messaging services such as Google’s email and Gmail are also subject to this type of attack.

Hackers’ goals of brute force attacks

We must say that this type of attack is not just to annoy the other person or have fun, but hackers can have different goals for doing this, which we will introduce to you in the following.

1. Taking over the system of people to do wrong activities

Hackers are usually constantly looking for new forces, which are people’s systems such as: computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones. After infecting devices with malware, hackers use them as a new force.

2. Disruption by secretly spreading malware

It is interesting to know that the purpose of some hackers with brute force attack is to disrupt people’s systems or to practice this type of attack. In this way, they secretly spread malware in the site codes, which eventually infects the system of these people.

3. Damaging the credibility of the website

Sometimes the goal of hackers can be to damage the reputation of a large and reliable site. In this way, they infiltrate the site with a brute force attack and spread false content including photos, videos and audio with immoral, racist and violent messages on the site, which ultimately calls the credibility of the site into question.

4. Use of data and advertisements

Another goal of hackers is to steal the advertising revenue of a website, which can be done in the following ways:

Directing site traffic to another site to receive commission

Collecting information of a site by monitoring its activities by means of spyware and selling it to advertising companies

Add spam ads to increase click rate and earn more money

5. Stealing important and personal information

Today, all of our personal information is transferred over the internet, which is why it can be stolen by brute force attacks and by hackers. And finally, the hacker can sell this important and personal information to make a profit.

Types of brute force attacks

Although we said earlier that brute force attacks can fail as much as they can succeed, depending on the hacker’s luck; But you should know that these attacks are definitely carried out with a previous plan and a specific method, which includes 5 main methods, and we will introduce these methods in the continuation of this tutorial.

1. Dictionary brute force attack

In this type of attack, the hacker actually has the username and is looking for its password. Basically, the simplest method of a brute force attack is having a username and looking for a password, which is called a dictionary. Of course, it should be noted that the dictionary attack is not specific to brute force attacks, but it can meet many needs of a hacker.

2. Reverse brute force attack

One of the strangest types of attacks is brute force; Because in this type of attack, the hacker has the password and is looking for the username. (Exactly the opposite of the previous type) In fact, in this type of attack, the hacker may have obtained the passwords of a set in some way, and now needs to find their usernames, in which case he uses a reverse brute force attack.

3. Simple brute force attack

This is actually the oldest type of brute force attack that has no specific pre-set plan. Vulnerable targets of simple brute force attack are simple and weak passwords like: 123456.

4. Combined brute force attack

This type of brute force attack is actually a combination of two dictionary and simple attacks. The target of this type of attack is combination passwords. These types of passwords include letters, numbers and other characters.

5. Attack using a person’s information on another site

There are people on the internet who use a username and password to join all sites; In this situation, it is enough for the hacker to gain access to his username and password on a site. And finally, he can access his user panel on all sites.

Methods to prevent Brute Force attacks

1. Installing the WordPress firewall plugin

First, protect your site against this attack and block them before they enter your server and block their entry way. For this you need to set up a firewall on your website, the firewall filters bad traffic and prevents access to your site. There are two types of website firewall that you can use Application Level Firewall or DNS Level Website Firewall.

2. WordPress updates

These attacks target old versions of templates, plugins and WordPress. The WordPress theme and popular WordPress plugins are open source, and vulnerabilities are often fixed with updates very quickly. So be sure to make updates on time and protect your site from these offensive and harsh sentences. To update, go to the updates section in the WordPress dashboard and update WordPress plugins.

3. Protect WordPress admin folder

Hackers and vandals are all trying to enter the WordPress counter of your site and manipulate and abuse your information. So the best thing is to prevent them and use security solutions for this part.

Now enter your hosting user panel and click on the Directory Privacy icon in the Files section. Find the wp-admin folder in this section and click on it. Then, specify and save a new username and password for the login section of the WordPress admin panel. From now on, the WordPress dashboard is secure and you must enter the specified username and password and log in.

If you encounter a 404 error, add the following code to your template’s htaccess file.

Error Document 401 default

4. Add two-step authentication in WordPress

By adding this item, you add an extra layer of security to your WordPress admin panel login page. From now on, it will be more difficult for hackers, even if they find the password to enter the counter, they cannot enter your WordPress counter without entering this code.

5. Use strong and unique passwords

Passwords are the key to accessing your WordPress site. For this reason, you should use strong keywords for all your accounts. A strong password is a combination of numbers, letters and special characters.

6.  Installing and setting up the WordPress backup plugin

Backing up your site is the most important thing to keep your site safe. If a file or information is deleted, you can restore your site information completely by using the support file. So be sure to backup your hosting and site weekly or daily.