5 Security Modules to Protect your Drupal Website

By Elizabetholsen, 27 November, 2015
5 Security Modules to Protect Your Drupal Website

Drupal is quickly becoming popular among those web developers who usually prefer to have more security features for their content management systems. Frequent updates of Drupal have made it a more secure option and Drupal’s Community of expert developers from all around the world has also been playing a major role in making it a more popular CMS by contributing variety of modules as well as themes which allow users to enjoy unlimited free features for their websites.

Vulnerabilities in Drupal CMS

On one hand, Drupal developers and community members are making their best efforts to keep this particular CMS fully up-to-date to deal with prevailing security issues, while on the other hand, hackers also try to locate vulnerabilities in this CMS, its modules and themes for hacking purpose. Therefore, those who have Drupal based websites must ensure updated security practices and in this post, you are going to learn a lot about security modules that can provide your websites maximum protection against hackers and other risky elements.

Get Protection with Security Modules

Drupal and all the other Content Management Systems bring timely updates to ensure security but of course, there is no guarantee for occurrence of vulnerabilities in themes and modules. It is also important to note here that most of the themes and modules contributed by others often come with higher security risks. Though, core Drupal might have very lower risk of vulnerability, contributed Modules and Themes might have much higher risk. Here you can discover top five security modules available to be used with great easy:

1. Login Security

You can use Login Security to increase the level of security in your Drupal based site login operation. Drupal, by default, allows just the basic control access that prevents IP access to full content. Some of the most popular features of using this particular program are as follow:

  • With the help of this special module, an admin can put an access control option to basic login form which will allow him to deny access of the website by IP address on permanent or temporary basic or set a specific number for constant login attempt from unauthorized access and then block the account.
  • Site administrator also gets notification by email which allow him to keep himself fully up to date with his website login form.
  • Login Security module can also be used to disable core messaging feature for login errors making login failure reason more confusing. This will make it quite difficult for an attacker to be ensure about the existence of an account.

2. Password Policy

This particular module clearly defines policies to password and forcefully implement limitations to user passwords. For example, when a user wants to change password, it should not be very simple process because this will allow hackers to control the site quite easily and therefore, a user must meet some hindrances to be allowed to change the password. Each constraint comes with a specific parameter that must be satisfied. Some of the features that come as constraints in a newer version for Drupal 8 are as follow:

  • Username
  • Character types
  • Letter/Digit
  • Letter
  • Digit
  • Length
  • Punctuation
  • Uppercase
  • Lowercase
  • Digit placement
  • Delay

3. Secure Pages Hijack Prevention

Secure Pages Hijack Prevention is another prefect module for Drupal users and it will enable them to put an additional security layer to ensure maximum security of pages. In case of hijack sessions, this module will prevent hijackers access SSL Pages. Experts recommend developers to implement this special module to protect most important pages of their websites. Though, hijacked sessions can access to non-SSL pages, SSL are always secured. Some of its features are as follow:

  • An easy to install and use module
  • Provides maximum security features
  • Free to use features
  • Hackers can’t access SSL Pages

4. Security Review

Security Review has been proven to be a perfect addition in security squad of Drupal based websites. This module has been designed to ensure automated testing to make sure timey resolution of most of the security issues. The best thing about this module is that it is quite easy to use as you just need to install and use it. Some of the great features of security review are as follow:

  • Test and ensure maximum protection against code executive and arbitrary by checking system permissions
  • Provides maximum security against XSS as dangerous tabs are prevented
  • Secure error reporting that prevent disclosure of important information
  • Maximum security and protection of private files
  • Large number of database errors and failed logins
  • Brute-force protection with username
  • Users are sent password through emails
  • No automatic changes to the site

5. Two-factor Authentication (TFA)

When accessing your website admin area, Drupal requires you to produce something you already know such as a username and a valid password to ensure authentication, however, when you add Two-factor Authentication (TFA) module, it requires you to follow another step toward authentication by producing something that you have such as a special code recently received by you on your mobile phone. Some of TFA features are as follow:

  • Two-factor Authentication (TFA) comes with variety of factors such as it is pluggable and supports variety of second factor verification methods.
  • It has been designed to function with unlimited number of third party systems.
  • It provides flood control.
  • It has been tested more than hundred times
  • It is a full fledge solution to second factor authentication

Conclusion

The above discussed are just the few security modules for your Drupal based CMS and by using them, you can easily get maximum protection against vulnerabilities. It is also important to know that installing various extensions can cause slow loading of your website and therefore, it is better to choose only the ones that are best and don’t affect performance of your site.

Author - Elizabeth is the CEO and Co-Founder of Most Secure VPN. She loves to search latest tech and trends and share with other people, she also writes review about different privacy production like ExpressVPN review. She started her career in 2011 as a software engineer. For more follow him on Twitter @mostsecurevpn or read latest news on blog.