WordPress powers a huge share of the web, which makes it a constant target. The good news is that the overwhelming majority of WordPress compromises exploit a small, predictable set of weaknesses, and almost all of them are preventable. This WordPress security hardening checklist walks through the steps that actually move the needle in 2026, roughly in priority order.
TL;DR
Vulnerable and outdated plugins and themes are the single biggest WordPress attack vector; disciplined updates and removing unused code matter more than anything else
Strong authentication (unique admin usernames, strong passwords, two-factor, login rate limiting) closes the second most common door
Harden wp-config.php, file permissions, and the REST API / XML-RPC surface, and put a WAF in front of the site
