Best Practices To Ensure Plesk Security - Supportfly

In today's world, security of servers is of utmost importance to protect your data and assets from malicious attacks. Plesk is a popular web hosting control panel used by many businesses to manage their websites and applications. However, just like any other software, Plesk is also vulnerable to security threats if it is not properly secured. While there is an option of hiring professional like SupportFly for Plesk server support, in this blog, we will discuss the best practices to secure your Plesk server to ensure that your data is safe and secure from any potential attacks. We will cover topics such as server hardening, updating Plesk, implementing firewalls, using secure passwords, and more. By implementing these best practices, your Plesk security  will be high. You can rest assured that your Plesk server is secure and your data is protected.

Why is Plesk security important?

Securing your Plesk server is critical to protect your website, applications, and sensitive data from potential security threats. If your Plesk server is not properly secured, it can be vulnerable to attacks such as hacking, malware infections, and data breaches. These security threats can result in downtime, loss of data, and even financial loss. Moreover, if your website or application is compromised, it can damage your brand reputation and lose customer trust. 

By implementing best practices to secure your Plesk server, you can minimize the risk of security threats and ensure that your data and assets are protected. It is important to take security measures seriously and make it a top priority to prevent any potential harm to your business. 

Wondering what these best practices are? Well, that's what we’re gonna discuss next.

Best Practices To Ensure Plesk Security

These best practices should be implemented across all of your sites, whether you are a host server administrator or a site owner. Because a single hacked site can have a negative impact on server performance. Plesk security should always be a top priority.

Update Consistently

Plesk developers release updates whenever a security vulnerability is discovered or problems are reported and resolved. All updates are critical, but security patches are even more critical for safeguarding websites from known vulnerabilities. These patches address vulnerabilities that have been discovered in the wild. If you leave the Plesk application unpatched, your site and any other sites controlled by Plesk are vulnerable to exploits.

Many big data breaches have been caused by out-of-date software. You can utilise configurations to automatically install Plesk updates, ensuring that you always have the most recent version. Plesk may go offline for a few minutes following upgrades, thus this option is not always practicable for large hosts. If you do not utilise automatic updates, administrators should use notifications to notify them when Plesk updates. So that they can update the programme as soon as feasible.

Use Password Complexity Rules When Creating Passwords

People frequently reuse passwords across many sites, and their passwords typically consist of a word and sometimes a few numbers. Passwords with few characters that are used across several sites expose the user password to brute-force assaults. Attackers might discover the user's password on another website, then use the broken password to authenticate and compromise the Plesk account using the same credentials.

Password rules can be applied by hosts to ensure that users only use cryptographically secure passwords that are resistant to brute-force assaults. The greater the number of characters in a password, the more secure it is against brute-force attacks; yet, the number of characters is insufficient. The user must also adhere to the complexity rules. Passwords must be a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters, according to complexity standards. To make a password even more safe, the characters should be randomised and not formed entirely of dictionary words.

Plesk allows you to create password rules, however it recommends that passwords be eight characters long. A password with one uppercase character, five lowercase letters, one number, and one special character, or eight characters, currently takes around two hours to crack, making it cryptographically unsafe. To protect against brute-force attacks, hosts should use at least 10 characters for the master password, and users should be urged to use 10-12 character passwords as well.

Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication

Phishing and brute-force password attempts are widespread, and the Plesk administrator cannot require a user to use a different password across all sites. Whenever the user or Plesk administrator falls victim to a phishing attempt, multi-factor authentication (MFA) prevents the threat actor from gaining access to the target account.

Since weaknesses in the SS7 protocol allow attackers to hijack messages, text message two-factor authentication (2FA) has become unsafe. SIM shifting is another issue in which attackers employ social engineering to persuade telecom representatives to route communications for a certain user to the attacker's SIM. Most businesses utilise authenticators to produce a user-specific code for the second step in 2FA for these two reasons.

Plesk is compatible with the Google Authenticator software, which can be downloaded to a user's smartphone. The feature requires the installation of an extension, but it is well worth the effort to improve authentication security against phishing. The Authenticator generates codes for the MFA's second step. That is far more secure than sending text messages.

Use SSL/TLS for Remote Administration and SSH

SSH is extensively used for remote administration of Linux machines. However it exposes the server to a variety of risks, including complete server takeover via the root account if not adequately secured. You can protect SSH on the main physical server and user instances by implementing numerous best practises.:

• Instead of using passwords, use a keyfile to authenticate.
• Set up SSH to utilise a different port.
• Disable SSH authentication for the root user.

SSL/TLS certificates encrypt all data transmitted between the user's computer and the host. This prevents eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle attacks from stealing critical information.

Use sFTP and not FTP for File Sharing

It is customary for hosting businesses to provide FTP access to their customers, however FTP is a protocol that transports data in cleartext. As a result, any files uploaded via FTP are subject to man-in-the-middle attacks and data theft. Although it is a separate protocol than HTTP, FTP file transfer is just as hazardous as HTTP cleartext financial data transfer. Any sensitive information contained in uploaded files could be modified or stolen.

Secure FTP (sFTP) employs encryption to transfer files, similar to how HTTPS adds encryption to the HTTP protocol. It protects file transfers from eavesdropping by adding a layer of protection. It functions similarly to FTP, except that encryption is added to the protocol. So that users must use FTP software that supports sFTP.

Automate CMS Updates

You can enable automatic updates in WordPress, but you can also enable them in Plesk. Automatic updates will ensure that the CMS software is constantly up to date with the most recent fixes and upgrades, protecting it from the most recent CVEs. While updating WordPress, keep in mind that all plugins must also be updated. Ensure that they do not leave vulnerabilities open on the site.

CMS isn't the sole piece of software on a single website. Typically, site owners have numerous apps operating on their website that must be updated, such as gallery software, ecommerce systems, email, and gallery applications. Plesk includes technology that enables automatic upgrades for certain apps, ensuring that they are not a source of compromise.

Conclusion

Securing your Plesk server is crucial to ensure that your website and applications are protected from potential security threats. In this blog, we have discussed some of the best practices to secure your Plesk server, including updating Plesk and the operating system, using strong passwords, enabling a firewall, disabling unused services, using SSL/TLS encryption, implementing brute-force protection, using two-factor authentication, and securing file permissions. 

By implementing these security measures, you can minimize the risk of security threats and ensure that your data and assets are protected. It is important to make server security a top priority. So regularly review your server to ensure that it is up-to-date and secure. By following these best practices, you can rest assured that your Plesk server is secure and your data is protected.