Steps to Take to Hide the Fact a Site is Using WordPress?

Question

I have a website for which we are trying to be discreet about the fact that we are using WordPress. What steps can we take to make it less obvious?

To test if an answer was helpful, check this online tool: scan.sucuri.net/?page=scan&scan=http://hakre.wordpress.com :)
That's security by obscurity. If they really want, someone can correlate the behavior of page generations and prove that it's running on a wordpress engine.
@Wadih M. - "Security by Obscurity" is not the only reason for this. One of my clients wants the same but they want it because they want to be able to sell their hosted services to clients who would balk it paying top dollar if they thought "Heck, they are just using WordPress." So it's a branding/perception game, not a security one, at least for my client.

Chris_O · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-09 00:36:29Z

The biggest WordPress giveaways are between the <head> </head> tags.

Example WordPress head content output by The Twentyten Theme and how to remove:

<link rel="profile" href="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11" />

Remove directly from header.php

 <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="http://example.com/wp-content/themes/twentyten/style.css" />

Hide WordPress by calling your stylesheet from another location and change the wp-content directory. WordPress requires your theme to include some basic information at the top of style.css (style.css must be in the themes root directory). You will need to create an alternate CSS and call it from your head. WordPress does not require you to use the themes style.css it only requires it to be in the themes directory.

Remove directly from header.php

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Example Blog &raquo; Feed" href="http://example.com/feed/" /> 
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Example Blog &raquo; Comments Feed" href="http://example.com/comments/feed/" />    
<link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="http://example.com/xmlrpc.php?rsd" /> 
<link rel="wlwmanifest" type="application/wlwmanifest+xml" href="http://example.com/wp-includes/wlwmanifest.xml" /> 
<link rel='index' title='Example Blog' href='http://example.com/' /> 
<meta name="generator" content="WordPress 3.1-alpha" />

To remove these extra links you can add a filter to functions.php

// remove junk from head
remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link');
remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator');
remove_action('wp_head', 'feed_links', 2);
remove_action('wp_head', 'index_rel_link');
remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');
remove_action('wp_head', 'feed_links_extra', 3);
remove_action('wp_head', 'start_post_rel_link', 10, 0);
remove_action('wp_head', 'parent_post_rel_link', 10, 0);
remove_action('wp_head', 'adjacent_posts_rel_link', 10, 0);

You can change your plugin directory and your wp-content directory in your wp-config.php file but you could have some problems if your theme or any plugins do not use the proper method to call files.

define( 'WP_CONTENT_DIR', $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/new-wp-content' );

Set WP_CONTENT_URL to the full URI of this directory (no trailing slash), e.g.

define( 'WP_CONTENT_URL', 'http://example/new-wp-content');

Optional Set WP_PLUGIN_DIR to the full local path of this directory (no trailing slash), e.g.

define( 'WP_PLUGIN_DIR', $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/new-wp-content/new-plugins' );

Set WP_PLUGIN_URL to the full URI of this directory (no trailing slash), e.g.

define( 'WP_PLUGIN_URL', 'http://example/new-wp-content/new-plugins');

PLUGINS

Be aware that some plugins like Akismat, All in One SEO, W3-Total-Cache, Super Cache, and many others add comments to the HTML output. Most are easy to modify to remove the comments but your changes will be overwritten anytime the plugins get updated.

wp-includes

The wp-includes directory holds jquery and various other js files that themes or plugins will call using wp_enqueue_script(). To change this you will need to deregister the default WordPress scripts and register the new location. Add to functions.php:

function my_init() {
    if (!is_admin()) {
        // comment out the next two lines to load the local copy of jQuery
        wp_deregister_script('jquery');
        wp_register_script('jquery', 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.2/jquery.min.js', false, '1.3.2');
        wp_enqueue_script('jquery');
    }
}
add_action('init', 'my_init');

This will need to be done with each script used by your theme or plugins.

Chris_O: Great answer! You should probably add too that if they use plugins or themes many of these are easily identified; i.e. if someone is using the akismet plugin or all-in-one-seo then it's still a pretty dead giveaway by someone who knows what they are look for.
@MikeSchinkel True, but at the same time, so are wp-includes and wp-admin; with the exception that you can't change either of those, nor can you hide them without limiting the functionality of the site.
@John P Bloch: Definitely, however I wouldn't have said but, I would have said and. :)
@MikeSchinkel: for wp-admin and wp-includes you can do some stuff via apache access control, so to make those paths inexistent for other users then the admin, e.g. leading to a standard 404.
@Chris_O: Checkout register_theme_directory(), I think it's great to hide the theme dir out of the "wp-content" directory.

brasofilo · Answer 2 · 2012-07-15 16:20:03Z

up vote 23 down vote

One bit that is often missed - delete readme.html in WordPress root. It not only identifies installation as WP but also has precise version. And don't forget to repeat on updates.

Related Question: Prevent access or auto-delete readme.html, license.txt, wp-config-sample.php

edited Jul 15 '12 at 16:20

brasofilo
10.3k31362

answered Sep 13 '10 at 6:25

Rarst♦
41.5k230115

brasofilo · Answer 3 · 2012-07-15 18:40:19Z

I've always used the Roots Theme method.
But applying it to those ThemeJungle's out there is usually a big headache.

So, started to play with the WP_CONTENT_* constants. Which I believe is a much less error prone method and this is what I have working right now:

safari activity window
^{/m is the uploads folder, /t is the themes folder and /t/t is the active theme folder. The site is not complex, so few assets loaded...}

WP_CONTENTLESS

`wp-config.php`

Setting wp-content to the root (/public_html/) of the site.

/** 
 Inside WP_CONTENT, the following folders should exist: 
 /languages , /mu-plugins , /plugins , /themes , /upgrade , /uploads  

 The WP_CONTENT_* definitions bellow REMOVE the existence of the /wp-content folder 
 and makes its contents reside in the ROOT of your site

 UTTERMOST attention is necessary when doing file maintenance activities in the server (i.e.: WP upgrades, new Webmaster...), 
 as the Themes and Plugins folders are meant to be renamed to /t and /p (serious candidates for unthoughful removal)

 PLEASE note:
 - we change the Plugins folder in WP_PLUGIN_* definitions
 - the Themes folder is changed by a MustUse Plugin 
   (/mu-plugins/set-extra-themes-folder.php)
 - the Uploads folder is changed in WordPress settings page 
   (http://example.com/wp-admin/options-media.php)
 - the hardcode path to be used in WP_CONTENT_DIR and WP_PLUGIN_DIR can be checked using an action inside the set-extra-themes-folder Plugin (check the comments in this file)
*/
define( 'WP_CONTENT_DIR', '/www/htdocs/username/public_html' );
define( 'WP_CONTENT_URL', 'http://www.example.com' );

define( 'WP_PLUGIN_DIR', '/www/htdocs/username/public_html/p' );
define( 'WP_PLUGIN_URL', 'http://www.example.com/p' );

I've asked about it in [wp-hackers] - Any drawbacks in setting WP_CONTENT_DIR (and URL) to DOCUMENT_ROOT?, where John Blackbourn¹, Mike Little² and Otto³ were kindly enough as to advise:

^{1

I've had this structure active on a site for the last 18
months and haven't seen any problems. As with any change to the
location of the content directory, you'll need to double check any
plugins you add to the site don't assume that the content directory is
at wp-content.}

^{2

There are discussions around the net the $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] may be
susceptible to hacking. In which case this is extremely dangerous because
there are lots of places that require() or include() WP_CONTENT_DIR .
'something';}

^{3

There are cases where the content in $_SERVER can be perfectly safe,
but for security purposes, it is better to always treat it as
untrusted data. For this specific case, hardcode the directory.}

A New Themes Folder

`/mu-plugins/set-extra-themes-folder.php`

As there's no WP_THEMES_* constants, we need the function register_theme_directory() to "Register a directory that contains themes."
Tried to set the extra directory to the root but the results are funny (i.e.: it doesn't work).

<?php
/*
    Plugin Name: Set Extra Themes Folder
    Version: 1.0
    Description: Allows the directory - http://example.com/t - to be used as an extra theme's directory
    Plugin URI: http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/1507
    Author: brasofilo
    Author URI: http://rodbuaiz.com
*/


/**
 * Remove the comment from the following line to know the correct path to put in register_theme_diretory()
*/
//add_action( 'admin_head', 'brsfl_alert_directory_path' );

function brsfl_alert_directory_path()
{
    echo '<script type="text/javascript">
        alert("Directory: '.$_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'");
    </script>';
}


/**
 * The following will enable the directory "t" to be used as an EXTRA Themes directory
*/
register_theme_directory( '/www/htdocs/username/public_html/t' );


/**
 * De-registering default scripts in wp-includes for CDN ones
*/
add_action('init', 'brsfl_init_scripts');

function brsfl_init_scripts() 
{
    if ( !is_admin() ) 
    {
        wp_deregister_script( 'jquery' );
        wp_deregister_script( 'swfobject' );
        wp_register_script( 'jquery', 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.1/jquery.min.js', false, '1.7.1' );
        wp_register_script( 'swfobject', 'https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/swfobject/2.2/swfobject.js', false, null, true );
        wp_enqueue_script( 'jquery' );
        wp_enqueue_script( 'swfobject' );
    }
}

Uploads Folder

`/wp-admin/options-media.php`

Instead of http://example.com/uploads, it'll be http://example.com/m.
Unchecking Organize my uploads into... will give a WPless appearance to the assets URLs.
If the site is live, a search/replace must be done in the database and files must be moved around.
uploads folder settings

Plugins and Head Content

Refer to Cris_O Answer in this Q&A.

Readme.html

Refer to Rarst Answer in this Q&A.

Other Steps

As usual, ThemeJungle themes may prompt specific hacks in the theme.
Like... TimThumb not working (!!!lol!!!).

Sorry, ThemeForest, seems like you've been taken steps to tackle this matter. And with some nice helping hands!

AndyBeard · Answer 4 · 2010-09-12 22:58:25Z

You can have WordPress on one server and scrape your content from another only including the content you need.

If you need RSS your would have to do the same with that.

Effectively it would be like serving static pages from a proxy or CDN, but only the bits you want to serve. You could then also just use a javascript based comment system such as Disqus.

Really low resource use, becaue here are no databases on the server serving the content.

@AndyBeard - That's very much an interesting idea, but it would require lots of development time to get something workable. Or do you know of an open source project where somebody has already done this?
Here is one solution wordpress.org/extend/plugins/really-static - there are a few others

mireille raad · Answer 5 · 2010-09-08 17:59:03Z

up vote 5 down vote

You can create your custom address to login to your blog. By not using the classic “myblog.com/wp-admin” path to get to your dashboard This page will help you with creating stealth logins, this is also good for security measures.

So the ppl who append wp-admin to your blog, won't be able to guess :)

edited Sep 8 '10 at 17:59

answered Sep 8 '10 at 16:49

mireille raad
70929

Link is outdated & plugin removed. – kaiser Feb 22 '12 at 17:49

2

@kaiser : the Internet Archive Wayback Machine has it (and, amazingly, even the zip) ;) – brasofilo Jul 15 '12 at 17:08

5

@brasofilo Just to make it better covered - here's a "non expiring" pastebin. :) – kaiser Jul 15 '12 at 17:15

1

@kaiser brasofilo - thanks guy for following up on answer :) i am keeping this as well – mireille raad Jul 16 '12 at 11:09

Avery Chan · Answer 6 · 2011-06-19 05:41:05Z

In addition to the above, you need to lock down access to the various wp* files and directories. If someone wanted to see if you were running WP they could guess to see if you had wp-settings.php or if they could access some directory. Returning a 403 isn't sufficient because it tells the user that the resource exists; they just don't have access to it.

I'm not an apache expert so I asked this question over on serverfault.

James · Answer 7 · 2010-09-08 15:43:28Z

up vote 0 down vote

You can customize a theme to exclude all the WordPress information. Also remove meta widget and any widget that would output information about the platform.

Personally, I prefer to show my gratitude by displaying that I am using WordPress.

answered Sep 8 '10 at 15:43

James
28826

8

Gratitude is nice, but it doesn't answer the core question. – ZaMoose Sep 8 '10 at 16:46

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