After we install the wordpress, the login path is wp-login.php, signup path is wp-signup.php and the manage url is wp-admin, I think it’s not secure enough, so I want to rename the wp-login.php and wp-admin to secure the wordpress website. This is the steps that I used to rename the files.
Download the wordpress to local machine
The first step that I have done is compress the wordpress directory, and download it to local machine, then I add it to manage with git.
Rename wp-admin and secure name
Generate secure name
To secure the wp-admin directory, I use a tool to generate a random string to replace with wp-admin, so it should not easy to guess, for example, I generated a name like Gk143L9IxOpW.
Replace all the occurrences of wp-admin
- Rename
wp-admin/toGk143L9IxOpW/ - Rename
'wp-admin'to'Gk143L9IxOpW'
I used the VS-Code to replace all the occurrences of wp-admin/ and 'wp-admin'. I do this because there are some wp-admin in css files, and I don’t want to replace this strings. After updated the files, then review with git, remove some useless replacements.
Rename wp-admin to secure name
Then rename the directory name from wp-admin to Gk143L9IxOpW.
Commit changes
In order to keep the change records, I will commit the changes to git, and change the wp-login.php next.
Rename wp-login.php to secure-login.php
Generate a secure name for wp-login.php
I updated the wp-login.php to another name, and I just generate another random name for wp-login.php, for example, I will change it to FUvg024Rdt1Q.php.
Replace the occurrences of wp-login.php
I still use the VS-Code to rename the wp-login.php to FUvg024Rdt1Q.php, and review with git to discard the useless changes.
Rename the wp-login.php to secure name
Then rename the wp-login.php to FUvg024Rdt1Q.php
Commit changes
Commit the changes to git, so we can review the changes next time.
Rename wp-signup.php
The signup url also redirect to login page, so we also need rename wp-signup.php to secure our wordpress.
The process for rename wp-signup.php is similar as the process of rename wp-login.php file.
Update remote website
Upload the changed folder to remote and replace the content of the wordpress, and login with the secure name.