Recently we ran into some issues with our WordPress hosting servers running slowly. Running out of resources. It looked like an increase in network traffic. Like some of our client WordPress sites were getting a lot of increased traffic. It seemed like a Denial of Service attack (DOS). The network was clogged, the servers were running slower, PHP-FPM processes were tagged. While troubleshooting this issue we were looking at Apache web server log files and seeing a lot of traffic like this:
What was happening was bot traffic or hacker traffic was constantly hitting the xmlrpc.php file in WordPress. A constant stream of requests. If you tailed the web access log tail -f web.log file you could see in real time 3-5 requests per second hitting xmlrpc.php WordPress file. This traffic was hitting all of our WordPress sites and slowing them down. We were not familiar with the xmlrpc.php file in WordPress because it is old not used anymore. Luckily I came across this article that helped!
How to fix WordPress xmlrpc.php Server Traffic Issue
There are several different ways to fix this xmlrpc bot traffic issue. If you read different articles on it you will see conflicting advise on what you should do. What I can tell you is that we used the .HTACCESS allow,deny technique and it worked for us. The bad traffic has stopped. We run mostly Apache web servers so we added this new rule globally at the server level in the Apache2.conf file
The same .HTACCESS block rule could be added to your .HTACCESS file on your WordPress site. Or could be addressed with a plugin. But if possible it is better to address this issue at the server level or firewall level. In other words intercept the issue before it gets down to your WordPress site. The solution for xmlrpc issue will depend on your website host. If you are experiencing this issue show your WordPress host the log files and ask for the best way to resolve.
Looking for a Kansas City Web Hosting Company to fix your WordPress site?
IDP can help. Please contact us to get started. We have 18 years experience with Kansas City web hosting. We offer fully managed web hosting solutions. Leave the technical details to us and focus on your business.
Monte is one of the original founders of the company in 2003. Monte is a creative talent with 20 years experience in web design and information technology. He works with clients on a daily basis to develop, maintain and market their web sites. Monte is also in charge of the web hosting environment and server administration duties for the company.