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Brute-forcing login

note

This page forms part of the Moodle security guidelines.

What is the danger?​

Evil Hacker wants to break into your Moodle site by stealing the account of a registered user.

They write a script that automatically tries logging in with a range of common passwords, for example, admin / admin, admin / apple, admin / 1234, .... It only takes one user with we weak password that Evil Hacker can guess, and your site is compromised.

How Moodle avoids this problem​

A lockout system is present in Moodle 2.5 onwards, you just need to turn it on at Administration > Site administration > Security > Site security settings > Account lockout threshold ($CFG->lockoutthreshold).

Moodle also counts failed login attempts, and can alert the administrator by email when there are too many.

There are admin settings to enforce a minimum level of complexity for passwords, for example, by insisting on a minimum number of characters.

What you need to do in your code​

  • If you are writing an authentication plugin, ensure that all failed logins are logged correctly.

What you need to do as an administrator​

  • Consider turning on the options for reporting login failures.
  • Consider turning on the settings that ensure password complexity.

See also​