The 5 most significant security flaws in shared hosting and how to fix them

While it may be the most cost-effective alternative to run your business, shared hosting can put your site’s reliability and functionality at risk.

Customers frequently inquire as to whether or not the shared hosting of their business makes it susceptible to being attacked. Yes, it does come with a specific level of protection that has the possibility of resulting in a website being accessed.

If this occurs, spammers may exploit your site to send spam to your consumers, show information that is not authorized, and direct links to websites that are unfamiliar to them. If Search discovers that your website has been scammed, the search engine will instantly prohibit your website, and your internet provider will terminate your hosting account.

What Does It Mean to Have Shared Hosting?

You will need a webpage to make your platform accessible via the internet. These servers can be purchased from hosting providers such as MyResellerHome, WebHostingWorld, m2host, and dollor2host, amongst others.

Every single activity and process that takes place on your page will make use of the material provided by this host. For instance, when a user arrives at your website and selects the option to access your site, it will retrieve the needed details and then present the main page to the user. Your page will make use of some of the components on your host to carry out this operation.

Now, a whole system and all of its capabilities are not required for each page. There are a lot of web pages that aren’t very big, with only just a few specific pages, and they only use up a small portion of the facilities that a server has available. Buying a host for one’s use is therefore not only wasteful of money but of other materials as well.

Consider it as though you were purchasing a whole apartment structure even though all you require is a single unit.

As a result, shared hosting came into existence. A shared hosting plan is one in which numerous domain names are hosted on the same physical machine.

The maximum size of services that can be allocated to each webpage determines the maximum number of pages that can be hosted on a shared server. On the other hand, have the capacity to simultaneously host internet sites.

Because of this, hosting companies can provide shared web hosts at such low prices, which positions shared hosting as the choice with the lowest overall cost.

However, some issues can arise when serving numerous websites on a single server. After that, we will go into further detail about this topic.

The Top 5 Speed and Safety Dangers Associated With Shared Web Hosting

In a manner similar, other pages that are hosted on the web servers that you utilize might give your website some trouble. The following are the top 5 performance and security risks associated with choosing a shared hosting service:

A Shared Addressing Book

Each page built with WP has its own directory on the server where its WP documents, contents, and any other relevant facts are stored. On your web application, this area is located inside something referred to as a “domain.

On a dedicated server, each webpage will have its own category, and all of its contents will be contained within that folder. On the other hand, entails having a single location that contains the files for several web pages.

The fact that your page shares this list makes it inextricably connected to the other pages that are hosted on your host. This is true even though your page has its own unique name and information.

This indicates that if an attacker is capable of accessing the main folder, they have the ability to target all of the websites that are hosted on the same server. Hackers accomplish this by executable files that search every website in the list for any security flaws or weaknesses they may find. It’s possible that the website is using an old plugin that’s been put there. After they have discovered vulnerability in the site, they will exploit it to hack into it.

A slow loading time

Your platform’s efficiency may suffer if one of the other pages on your host machine is compromised by an attacker. Attackers can exploit a web that has been hacked to carry out criminal acts such as hosting unlawful documents and directories, generating spam messages, or initiating assaults on other websites.

In this manner, the compromised webpage is using more of the services that are available on its shared server. Your business will suffer as a result of this. It will result in a noticeable delay in your website. There is also the possibility that users will be unable to interact with or see your website.

DDoS assaults

Your webpage load time may suffer if other websites hosted on the same host are seeing increased levels of visitor activity.

When an attacker intends to shut the site down, they will build numbers of harmful agents and equipment to send an overwhelming number of visitors to the web application. This kind of attack is referred to as a DDoS attack.

To accommodate the unexpected increase in visitor numbers, the webpage that is currently being attacked will begin drawing more services from the system. This will inevitably result in fewer assets being accessible to your business, which will have a detrimental influence on the efficiency and functionality of your webpage.

Your page was not the intended purpose of the attack; it was just damaged in the process.

The IP address that is shared

Equipment connected to the internet, such as your computer or mobile phone, is given a distinct number known as an IP address. This number recognizes the equipment. Because hosts are also objects that use the web, they each have their own unique IP address for security reasons.

All of the webpages that are maintained on a shared server will have the same IP address because only one IP address can be assigned to a shared server.

If a surrounding company engages in criminal acts or sends spam to its users, the offending Internet address will be added to a blacklist and will be flagged as harmful. This will lead to a variety of issues for your website, including the following:

Your page will be flagged as dangerous by devices, and users of such security systems will be prevented from reaching it.

Email services such as Gmail will restrict your IP address, which means that any message you produce will be sent to the junk folder of your client’s email accounts.

Your website will be blacklisted and marked as unsafe if it is submitted to search engines like Google.

Region Who Cannot Be Trusted

Your web hosting company will under no circumstances divulge the identities of any other websites that are hosted on the same server as your own. You have absolutely no idea who your companions are, do you?

It is possible for an intruder to buy the same shared hosting plan as you do and then become your neighbor. They could operate spam and phishing websites to steal information from the people that visit those websites. Not only that, but they can also be storing harmful files and directories on the hosting server that they are using.

If you share your server with a node that can’t be trusted, this will undoubtedly put your website in jeopardy.

Even if you decide to utilize a host that other people also have access to, you may still protect your website by taking some precautions.

How to Protect Your Website from Shared Hosting Security Risks

While the simplest option might be to never go for shared hosting, the fact is that not everyone can afford a dedicated server and IP address. We’ve listed four measures you can implement on your website to mitigate the risks of shared hosting:

Install a Plugin for Added Safety

Regardless of whether you have your site hosted on a shared or dedicated server, you are required to implement this security feature on your website.

A strong firewall against attackers and other forms of criminal behavior on your website can be erected with the help of a reliable Cybersecurity extension. If an attacker using your similar service attempts to get into your website or execute harmful instructions, the protection plugin should identify this activity and send you an alert.

We strongly suggest that you install Malware on your WordPress website.

It will instantly set up a powerful router on your website, preventing hackers from obtaining important files there.

It will do daily scans of your website to check for the presence of viruses and ensure that there is none on the site. Your website will be scanned, and an alert will be sent to you as soon as it detects anything hazardous that may have been added to it by a hacker. Using the tool for quick malware repair, you may clean it up promptly without causing any damage to your website.

You may also deploy suggested Wp security steps on your website in a matter of clicks, rather than manually coding them. Your webpage protection will become more robust as a result of taking these steps.

Examine your Shared Host

We recommend evaluating two hosting providers and investigating the security protocols they implement on the server – side.

You may read other people’s reviews. You can also contact the customer support team via chat or phone to learn more about the privacy of your provider. Most reputable hosts have devised strategies to combat the dangers above.

Make sure they keep your site’s atmosphere different from others. This signifies that the environment should not be available to the world.

Set File Permissions

As was just said, hackers on a shared server can attempt to access your WordPress files to steal information from them. You can stop something like this from occurring by adjusting the permissions on the files on your website so that only you, as the site owner, have access to them.

You will need to log in to your hosting user’s cPanel to make any changes to the access policies.

PHP Execution in Unknown Folders is prohibited

When attackers discover a flaw in your domain, they use it to generate their own files and directories. This allows them to perform fraudulent operations on your services, such as diverting customers or emailing them with undesirable information.

Typically, they run code written in the PHP programming language. Although PHP execution is necessary on your website, it is only used in certain folders. By restricting PHP processing in untrusted folders, you can secure the data from continuing its actions.

You can disable PHP execution directly, as outlined in our guide, or you can utilize a plugin like Malware to do it in just a few clicks.

That concludes our discussion of securing your site using a shared host. We are confident that by applying these precautions, your site is now more secure.

Conclusion

Shared hosting plans are typically an excellent choice for websites that are just getting started on the web or for companies that want only a fundamental online presence. On the other hand, when your company expands, and the size of your website continues to expand, you may find that you require a dedicated server.

It is always recommended to choose a dedicated hosting plan if at all possible, as this type of hosting offers superior protection and functionality.

However, no ecosystem is completely safe from cyber-attacks. Hackers will try all kinds of different approaches before they succeed in breaking into your site. Maintaining an up-to-date and trustworthy security plugin on your website, such as Malware, is something that comes highly recommended by our team.

This will ensure that your website is protected by a firewall, preventing malicious traffic, and a scanner, which will check for Malware. If your site gets hacked, you may swiftly clean it up with the immediate malware removal option. You need not worry about the safety of your website.