Published on
Dec 26, 2024
Updated on
08 Jan 2025
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Author Slug Obfuscation: Secure your Author URLs with WPMasterToolKit

WordPress site security is a major concern for site owners. Potential attackers are constantly looking for ways to compromise the security of your sites. One common vulnerability lies in author pages, where user slugs are usually publicly exposed. With the "Obfuscate Author Slugs" module, we've developed a simple solution to hide this sensitive information and make your site more secure.

Author page URL protection

The main aim of the module is to obfuscate URLs on author pages that expose slugs/users. For example, a link such as sitename.com/author/username1/ is transformed into sitename.com/author/a6r5b8ytu9gp34bv/. Thanks to our encryption and decryption methods, user IDs are converted into hard-to-understand encrypted slugs.

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Restrict unauthorized access

When an access attempt from the original author URL is detected, the obfuscate module ensures that the visitor is redirected to a 404 page. This redirection ensures that malicious users cannot obtain exploited information from your author page, thus solidifying your defensive position against potential attacks.

Securing the REST API entry point

With the endpoint REST API /wp-json/wp/v2/users/, the module also obfuscates returned slugs, preventing any unwanted exposure of remote user information. This is crucial for interactive WordPress sites that rely heavily on API requests.

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How to use the obfuscate author slugs module

The "Obfuscate Author Slugs" module integrates seamlessly into your WordPress site. After activating the module, no additional manual configuration is required. It automatically begins redirecting and encrypting author slugs, while ensuring that REST API requests also present encrypted slugs.

Technical choices for slug obfuscation

To guarantee security, we use the DES-EDE3 encryption algorithm, coupled with the bin2hexto transform user IDs into a sequence of hexadecimal characters that are difficult to decipher. This ensures security and uniqueness with every transformation, protecting the identity and security of your users.

WordPress JSON user data with Gravatar avatar.
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Conclusion

WPMasterToolKit's "Obfuscate Author Slugs" module is a powerful tool for securing your WordPress site against unnecessary exposure of user slugs. Pursuing a superior privacy policy and security mindset, our module effectively replaces the need for additional plugins, while eliminating one of the common vulnerabilities exploitable by attackers.

Category
Security
Version
≤ 1.5.0
Type
Free
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