So you want to be able to do automatic updates and plugin/theme installations, but you don’t want to leave your files wide open, or give your unprivileged PHP process too much access around the clock. This guide shows you how to set up wp-config.php with SSH specifically for php use only.
Category: Security
GeoIPLookup: Geolocation from the CLI
If you have your own server or use a Linux/BSD desktop at home there’s little reason why you can’t just quickly do a GeoIP lookup from the command line. Here’s how to install it on Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS and FreeBSD along with a trick or two.
Nginx Flood Protection with Limit_req
I’ll show you a very simple demonstration of Nginx’s Limit Request module and how it may be helpful to you in keeping your website up if you are hit by excessive connections or HTTP based denial-of-service attacks.
Protecting Folders with Nginx
This question comes up every so often, and its actually fairly easy besides the fact you do not use an .htaccess file. This writeup will show you how to implement auth_basic in Nginx as well as some alternatives to the htpasswd utility installed.
Configuring SNI with NginX
Traditionally for every SSL certificate issued, you needed a separate and unique IP address. However if you compile OpenSSL and NginX with TLS SNI (Server Name Identification) support you can install multiple SSL certificates without having to bind a domain name to a specific IP address or require each certificate to have its own unique IP.
Cloaking and Faking the Referrer
WordPress Automatic Update with SSH
If you’re like me, you don’t even want the insecure FTP protocol running on your server, but by default wordpress doesn’t even give you the option of using SSH to automatically upgrade your plugins, or wordpress itself. This article shows how you can add a few extra lines to wp-config.php to enable automatic updates with wordpress.
Using Namecheap’s Free SSL with Nginx
Most of my domains are registered with Namecheap, and powered by Nginx. The site you are viewing now is one such example. Currently with Namecheap, domain registrations, hosting, transfers and WhoIS protection come with a free PositiveSSL subscription. This section will show you how to generate a certificate request with OpenSSL and how to install the provided certificate into Nginx.