Drupal, a robust and versatile content management system (CMS), powers millions of websites worldwide, including those of major corporations, institutions, and governments. While Drupal offers robust security features, it’s imperative to implement best practices to safeguard your website from cyber threats.
Understanding the Evolving Threat Landscape
The digital landscape is continually evolving, and so are cyber threats. As organizations increasingly adopt remote work and digital transformation, the attack surface expands, making it crucial to prioritize security. Drupal, like any software, is susceptible to vulnerabilities, but the active community and dedicated security team work diligently to address them.
Common Security Risks and Mitigation Strategies
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): Malicious code injection into web pages.
In cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, malicious code is introduced into client-side scripts using HTML or JavaScript. XSS attacks come in three varieties: reflected (non-permanent), stored (persistent), and DOM-based. There are several strategies to defend against these, including utilising frameworks that steer clear of HTML elements and scanning your databases with online vulnerability scanners.
Mitigation: Keep Drupal and modules up-to-date, employ input validation and sanitization, and consider a web application firewall (WAF).
SQL Injection: Exploiting vulnerabilities in SQL queries.
This assault, which is also referred to as SQL injection, uses malicious SQL code to access and alter back-end databases and obtain data, including personally identifiable information (PII) about clients or business information. By avoiding dynamic queries that employ string concatenation and by preventing user-supplied data that contains malicious SQL from changing the logic of performed queries, developers may reduce the risk of SQL injections.
Mitigation: Utilize prepared statements and parameterized queries, input validation, and escape user-supplied input.
Remote Code Execution (RCE): Unauthorized access to execute code on a server.
By gaining access to systems, hackers are able to remotely run malware or other harmful programs and take control of the compromised systems or devices within an organisation. RCE attacks are characterised by effects that go beyond system penetration, such cryptomining and data theft, and may be carried out from any location in the world, as the name suggests.
Mitigation: Keep software and modules up-to-date, enforce strong password policies, and conduct regular security audits.
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF): Tricking users into performing unintended actions.
CSRF attacks force users to carry out undesirable activities in apps when they are already authenticated. Attacks that are successful can compromise a whole online application or only transfer money and change the addresses and other data.
Mitigation: Implement CSRF protection tokens, enforce strong session management, and educate users about security best practices.
Best Practices for Drupal Security
Let’s move on to the procedures and actions that prevent Drupal vulnerabilities, or what you would call your Drupal security checklist.
Maintain Up-to-Date Software
Regularly update Drupal core, modules, and themes to address security vulnerabilities promptly. Stay informed about security advisories and releases. Prioritize critical security updates and apply them immediately.
If you haven’t installed and updated any of these extensions yet, here is a list.
- Content access. Content permissions are decided by this security module according to author and role.
- Automated logout : After a predetermined amount of time, users are logged out using this module.
- Password policy This module adds an extra degree of protection against login-bots and creates safe password restrictions.
- Session limit. The maximum number of sessions per user is restricted by this module.
- Security kit (SecKit). By providing a variety of security-hardening choices, this module assists organisations in reducing their vulnerability to application attacks.
- Two-factor authentication (2FA). During login attempts, this module provides an additional layer of authentication.
- CAPTCHA. By filtering spambot form inputs, this module prevents automated scripts from publishing spam material.
Secure Your Website with an SSL Certificate
Protect your website and your users’ data with an SSL certificate. This digital certificate encrypts data transmission, preventing unauthorized access to sensitive information like passwords and credit card numbers. By enabling HTTPS, you enhance your website’s security, improve SEO, and boost user trust.
Strengthen with Role-Based Access Control and protect file permissions
A variety of user roles, including administrators, editors, and anonymous users, are available in Drupal. Each can be given particular rights, including the ability to view, edit, or change the content and operations of the website.
Certain positions will require more rights than others, and some will be privileged accounts. The principle of least privilege (POLP) should always be used. An information security standard known as the POLP maintains that a user should only be able to access the information, programs, and resources necessary to do a task. By imposing restrictions, the POLP reduces the number of ways malicious actors might get access to your systems and do damage to your company.
Choose a trustworthy hosting provider
In addition to storing your data, a web hosting provider will keep your site and apps secure and stable. On-premises, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) (often referred to as do-it-yourself) hosting, and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) providers are available options; each offers varying degrees of protection and support. Unless you choose a supplier, who handles everything, some will carry out the procedures we’ve discussed here, while others will fall under your purview. Think carefully about your demands and what you could give up if you choose with a less expensive choice. Keep in mind the fines that could be applied if your website doesn’t comply with the correct standards.
Make use of safe connections
Utilize SFTP encryption if it is available from your web hosting company or secure shell (SSH) client, but be sure to utilize port 22.
From the client’s perspective, ensure that: Don’t make a master password or keep FTP passwords. Threat actors can access them since they are kept in plain text and are not encoded. Advise users not to visit the website on public networks in places that are seldom secure, such as cafés and airports.
Be careful on the server side to: Use just the most recent versions of MySQL and PHP from the vendor. Make that the web application firewall is set up and the account is appropriately isolated. Avoid shared hosting, which may lead to shared IPs and overloaded servers.
Sanitize: Clean up the inputs
By adding an input validation function or logic, sanitization entails eliminating dangerous characters from user inputs, hardening the upload area. Sanitization guarantees that the data may be uploaded to a database and has an acceptable display format when it is implemented. XSS and SQL injection attacks may be prevented in particular using input sanitization.
Maintain periodic site backups
You may restore a backup in case something were to happen to your website, but the recentness of the backup will depend on how frequently you back up your site. Drupal core and all of its related modules and themes, together with the files for your application (such as PDF files of uploaded content), should be included in that backup so that you can promptly recover from an attack.
Remember: Have a solid backup before making any site upgrades. This is especially crucial when installing a module or theme for the first time.
Ensure HTTP security headers more robust.
Although there are other kinds of HTTP headers besides security-related ones, the ones that apply here instruct a browser on how different aspects of your website should be controlled. They are an excellent method of protecting your website or online application against intrusions such as clickjacking and man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks.
The following HTTP security headers are suggested to be taken into account:
- Content-security policy (CSP) : You may fine-tune the permitted content sources and other content settings using this header.
- Strict-transport-security. Using encrypted HTTPS connections rather than plain-text HTTP interactions is implemented via this header.
- X-frame-options. Publishers can prevent intruders from utilising their material in an unseen frame by using this header. The proper CSP directives can now take the place of X-frame-options, which are a holdover from 2008.
These are the most important HTTP security headers, while there are more, such public-key-pins and X-XSS-protection.
Enforce Strong Password Policies
Mandate strong, unique passwords for administrative accounts. Consider implementing two-factor authentication (2FA) for enhanced security. Encourage users to change passwords regularly and avoid using easily guessable information.
Monitor Security Logs
Regularly review server and application logs for suspicious activity. Utilize security monitoring tools to detect and respond to threats. Implement intrusion detection systems (IDS) and intrusion prevention systems (IPS) to identify and block malicious attacks.
Adding More Security Measures
You could wish to install other security features for even greater protection, like:
- An IP firewall with the ability to whitelist or restrict particular IPs, ASNs, or even whole nations
- An SSL certificate that protects online transactions and ensures the privacy and security of consumer data
- Defence from distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which aim to overload a server with internet traffic, blocking users from accessing the server’s supported services and websites. DDoS defence reduces the scope of an attack by preventing harmful traffic from getting to its target.
- A bot management tool that prevents harmful bot traffic from damaging APIs, mobile apps, and websites
Conclusion
By adhering to these best practices and maintaining vigilance, you can significantly enhance the security of your Drupal website and protect your valuable data. Remember, security is an ongoing process, so continuous monitoring and improvement are essential.
