5 Drupal Modules To Prevent Your Website From Hackers

With hackers, intruders and spammers ready to attack your sensitive data, virtual security is unarguably the top most concern an online firm should focus on. There are hundreds of CMS (content management systems) out there to give your business a digital platform, Drupal is claimed to be the most secure platform that seamlessly addresses an organization’s security needs.

Backed with a plethora of themes and modules, Drupal is a powerful CMS maintained by a dedicated community of programmers. These professionals provide the most consistent security updates, reducing the risk of a cyber attack to a great extent. However, if your business has already had the benefits of website development in Drupal, then consider checking out five best Drupal modules that can provide extra security to your website.

1. Password Policy: 

It is important for every business to define password policies for their website and enforce restrictions on user passwords. This can be done by using Drupal’s Password Policy module which provides a defined set of constraints implemented right before your website accepts the password changes of a user. The module includes a number of pre-defined parameters for each constraint that needs to be ‘satisfied’ for validating the conditions. The Password Policy module got new updates with the release of Drupal 8 wherein the constraints were introduced as plugins. In addition to that, the module includes a password expiration feature which enables a user to change password either forcibly or it blocks the user account when the old password expires.

It sets a credible password policy, enabling control through constraints when the password is generated. You can also control the structure of passwords including password’s length, unique characters, numbers, capitalization, password reuse, etc.

2 .Security Kit: 

With Drupal’s Security Kit module, you can safeguard four important categories: cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery, SSL/TLS, and clickjacking. The cross-site scripting secures content policies and handles browser reporting and policy violation management. For cross-site request forgery, the module lets you control the Origin HTTP request header. Also, clickjacking works on a similar implementation of X-Frame-Options HTTP response header and JavaScript which is paired with CSS and NoScript protection and the text is customized to disable JavaScript message. SSL/TLS manages the implementation of HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) response header, which lets you prevent the role of mediator and possibly control potential attacks through eavesdropping. This module comes with the best security-strengthening options for your website. It enables safe keeping by reducing risks of exploiting various other web app vulnerabilities.

3. Security Review: 

Security Review is a module to avoid the humiliation of silly mistakes your website can make. By using Security Review module on your Drupal website, you can automate the website testing process in the simplest manner. The module is fast and easy to implement. It enables you to check your website’s safe file system permission that limits the execution of arbitrary code. It safeguards your website against harmful XSS tags available in text formats. You can enable safety in reporting errors, restrict unnecessary information disclosure, ensure the security of confidential files, enable easy and secure extension uploading, and check the massive database for error-free usage. Additionally, you can have just one Drupal administrator enable permission to secure your website against any kind of misconfiguration. Note that, Security Review module does not add automated changes to your site unless its checklist and resources are not manually secured.

4. Generate Password: 

Generate Password follows a simple trick. It either makes password field optional or hides it on new user registration page. This allows the system to generate a generic password when it is not created during the registration process. As a Drupal admin, you are allowed to optionally decide if you want to display the password when it is created during new user registration process. This can be done by visiting user’s account settings page and change the behavior of password generation. You can also customize the password generation structure in terms of the password length, password entropy, capitalization, unique characters and number, password algorithm and password display according to your requirements.

5. Username Enumeration Prevention: 

Although Drupal comes with a secure interface, this doesn’t mean it cannot be exploited. In such scenario, it becomes essential to protect the usernames and Username Enumeration Prevention module does exactly the same. It makes it difficult for hackers to find the usernames. To help you understand better, hackers use “username enumeration” technique to find usernames via forgot password forms. You simply have to add a username that doesn’t exist. Thereafter, the hacker receives a response from Drupal. The hacker may try to use several different usernames on forgot password page until a valid username is found. There you can enable Username Enumerated Prevention module to redirect the hacker to the login form, while the error message replaces the preview message. However, this works by replacing the text that is displayed to users when requesting a new password. Also, when you replace the text, make sure it is more ambiguous so that it is difficult for the hacker to identify whether the user exists or not. The module disables the status message that could inform the hacker about a username’s existence via ‘Request New Password’ function.

With these Drupal security modules, you can keep those unwanted hackers away. We hope we were able to help you resolve your Drupal website security issues. If you know of any other modules or tips to strengthen Drupal website’s security, do let us know in the comments below.