Disable WordPress XML-RPC on Trellis sites.

• Goal
• Why disable WordPress XML-RPC?
• Requirements
• Installation
• Known Issues
  • Incompatible Plugins
• FAQs
  • Can I use this on managed hosting?
  • It looks awesome. Where can I find some more goodies like this?
  • This isn't on wp.org. Where can I give a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review?
• Testing
  • Syntax Check
• Author Information
• Feedback
• Change log
• License

Deny all requests to WordPress XML-RPC (i.e: /wp/xmlrpc.php) by Nginx.

• Kinsta: What is WordPress XML-RPC and How To Stop an Attack
• WPMU DEV: XML-RPC and Why It’s Time to Remove it for WordPress Security
• Sucuri: New Brute Force Attacks Exploiting XMLRPC in WordPress
• Incapsula: WordPress Default Leaves Millions of Sites Exploitable for DDoS Attacks
• LittleBizzy: How (And Why) To Disable WordPress XML-RPC

• Trellis 17c26fc or later
• Ansible v2.6 or later

Add this role to requirements.yml:

# requirements.yml
- src: https://github.com/ItinerisLtd/trellis-disable-xml-rpc
  version: 0.2.0 # Check for latest version!

Run the command:

➜ ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml --force

Add the role into dev.yml and server.yml, immediately after role: wordpress-setup:

roles:
  # Some other Trellis roles ...
  - { role: wordpress-setup, tags: [wordpress, wordpress-setup, letsencrypt] }
  - { role: trellis-disable-xml-rpc, tags: [nginx, wordpress, wordpress-setup] }
  # Some other Trellis roles ...

Then, re-provision as usual:

# https://roots.io/trellis/docs/local-development-setup/
➜ vagrant reload --provision

# https://roots.io/trellis/docs/remote-server-setup/
➜ ansible-playbook server.yml -e env=<environment>

Unfortunately, some plugins still relying on WordPress XML-RPC:

• Jetpack

No, you can't use this on managed hosting such as Kinsta or WP Engine.

You can disable WordPress XML-RPC by filters:

• xmlrpc_enabled - The name is misleading!
• xmlrpc_methods
• xmlrpc_element_limit

Or, just use our plugin - itineris-disable-xml-rpc

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Thanks! Glad you like it. It's important to make my boss know somebody is using this project. Instead of giving reviews on wp.org, consider:

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➜ ansible-playbook -i 'localhost,' --syntax-check tests/test.yml

trellis-disable-xml-rpc is a Itineris Limited project created by Tang Rufus.

Special thanks to the Roots team whose Trellis make this project possible.

Full list of contributors can be found here.

Please provide feedback! We want to make this library useful in as many projects as possible. Please submit an issue and point out what you do and don't like, or fork the project and make suggestions. No issue is too small.

Please see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.

trellis-disable-xml-rpc is released under the MIT License.