If you've ever viewed the core configuration file (wp-config.php
) for a WordPress site then you'll probably have noticed a section defining eight WordPress constants relating to security keys and salts:
AUTH_KEY
SECURE_AUTH_KEY
LOGGED_IN_KEY
NONCE_KEY
AUTH_SALT
SECURE_AUTH_SALT
LOGGED_IN_SALT
NONCE_SALT
Note: wp-config.php
is located in the root folder of your WordPress installation by default.
These constants contain security keys and salts which are used internally by WordPress to add an additional layer of authentication and to enhance security.
WordPress uses cookies (rather than PHP sessions) to keep track of who is currently logged in. This information is stored in cookies in your browser.
To make sure that authentication details are as secure as possible, unique keys and salts are used to increase the level of cookie encryption. These are recommended to be long strings (typically 64 characters long) of random alphanumeric and symbol characters.
The AUTH_KEY,
SECURE_AUTH_KEY
, and LOGGED_IN_KEY
security key constants were added in WordPress 2.6, which replaced a single all-in-one key first introduced in WordPress 2.5.
NONCE_KEY
was added soon after, in WordPress 2.7. Corresponding salts AUTH_SALT
, SECURE_AUTH_SALT
, LOGGED_IN_SALT
, and NONCE_SALT
were added along with each security key, but it wasn't until WordPress 3.0 that they were added to wp-config.php
.
Before WordPress 3.0, you could optionally add your own salt constant definitions to wp-config.php
, otherwise they would be generated by WordPress and stored in the database.
While the four security key constants are required, if you remove the salt constants from the WordPress config file, leave them at their defaults, or any salt is found to be a duplicate of another, then WordPress retrieves the salt from the database instead.
For new WordPress sites, salts will be generated and stored in the database.
During installation, WordPress doesn't generate unique security keys/salts in wp-config.php
. Instead, the same default message is entered for each constant.
If you've just installed WordPress on a remote server then it's recommended that you change the default message for each security key/salt constant to a proper and unique value.
Sometimes, your host will do this for you if you install WordPress via a custom script. Even so, for peace of mind, you might want to update the security keys/salts anyway soon after installation is complete.
Even after the security keys and salts have been initially set, it's a good idea to update them every so often. Anything you can do to make your site more secure is generally a good idea.
And even though it's highly unlikely that your passwords (together with security keys/salts) could be broken, updating them periodically makes sense as it safeguards against unforeseen circumstances such as your site backups being intercepted by unwanted third parties, etc.
So how do you actually update your security keys and salts? Let's look at a few different methods.
You could manually create new values for each constant, but this is rather tedious to do, especially if you have more than one WordPress site to update! Also, each key/salt might not be as secure as it could be.
Fortunately, the nice folks at WordPress have made this process very simple by providing an API to automatically generate the key/salt values for you. All you have to do is visit a secret key URL:
https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/
When the page loads, you'll be presented with unique strings for each constant, as shown below:
As you can see, each generated WordPress key/salt is a random sequence of 64 characters. Try refreshing the page a few times to satisfy yourself that the URL generates completely random keys/salts each time.
If you are developing your WordPress site locally then you can simply copy and paste the generated keys/salts directly into wp-config.php
to replace the existing entries.
Tip: I'd recommend always using the URL above, which utilizes the secure HTTP protocol.
This will effectively eliminate the chance of anyone intercepting the generated keys/salts when they are returned to you before being displayed in the browser.
If your site is hosted on a remote server then to update the keys/salts you'll need to either access and edit wp-config.php
via your server control panel, or via an FTP client that allows editing of remote files, such as FileZilla (free).
If the thought of manually editing remote server files sends your head into a spin then you might want to consider using a plugin instead. This is a very easy way to update your security keys/salts at the click of a button.
There are various plugins available to generate and update your security keys and salts. A relatively new plugin called Salt Shaker, released in October 2016, is a lightweight solution with the added bonus that you can schedule automatic updates of keys/salts to occur whenever you like. And best of all, it's free. Let's take a look at how to use it.
Download Salt Shaker from the WordPress repository or install it directly from your WordPress admin in the usual way. Go to Plugins > Add New and start typing Salt Shaker in the Search plugins... text box. When you see the plugin appear in the list, click Install Now.
After the plugin is installed, an Activate button will appear. Click this to finish setup.
Now that the plugin is active, we can test it. To access the plugin settings, go to Tools > Salt Shaker in the WordPress admin.
Here, we can update the security keys/salts immediately with a single mouse click. As soon as the Change Now button is clicked, a spinning icon appears to the right to indicate the plugin is updating wp-config.php
. As soon as the icon disappears, you know the security keys/salts have been updated.
Overall, the plugin works very well and can potentially save you a lot of time, especially if you have multiple WordPress websites. I'd perhaps like to see a couple more options for choosing the time period intervals, such as three months and six months, to increase the plugin's flexibility.
Also, a message clearly stating when the keys/salts have been updated would be useful—as would a further plugin option to automatically redirect to the login page after the keys/salts have been updated.
Alternatively, we can check the Change WP Keys and Salts box and choose when the wp-config.php
constants are updated. This is a really nice feature and basically allows you to forget about having to update security keys/salts. Just let the plugin do it all for you!
Remember though, whenever the security keys/salts are updated, you will be required to log in again. This is because cookies relating to logins are invalidated, and so users need to log back in again to update the cookie.
Therefore, before changing your security keys/salts, it's a good idea to have your login information to hand so you aren't accidentally locked out of your site.
If you don't want to use a plugin and you have a lot of remote WordPress sites then you could consider using a script to directly update the security keys/salts.
The downside to this is that you need to be proficient in scripting. However, there are several ready-made solutions available, so you don't necessarily have to code your own.
One such script, called WP-Salts-Update-CLI by Ahmad Awais, updates security keys/salts on your local computer or remote server.
To install this script on your computer (macOS only), open a terminal window and enter the following:
sudo wget -qO wpsucli
https://git.io/vykgu
&& sudo chmod +x ./wpsucli && sudo install ./wpsucli /usr/local/bin/wpsucli
This will make an executable script globally available via the wpsucli
command. You can run it on your local machine to actively search for all instances of WordPress config files and replace the security keys/salts with new values directly from the WordPress secret key API URL.
When running the script on a remote server, it's recommended to do so from the root folder, i.e. cd /
, and then run wpsucli
. For more details about the script, see the main information page.
In this tutorial, we've covered what WordPress security keys/salts are and why it's important to update them periodically. We've also looked at various ways you can update them, from manually copy/pasting (if you have direct access to wp-config.php
) to using a plugin to completely automate the process. If you're familiar with the command line then you can also use a custom script to update local/remote sites fairly easily.
The downside is that you still have to manually run scripts which can be easily forgotten, so rather than having to schedule this into your workflow, using a plugin to automate the process might be the best way to go.
Whatever method you choose, the important thing is to remember that you're adding another layer of security to your WordPress site(s), and anything you can do to achieve that with minimal effort can only be a good thing!
And if you're looking for other utilities to help you build out your growing set of tools for WordPress or for code to study and become more well-versed in WordPress, don't forget to see what we have available in Envato Market.
The Best Small Business Web Designs by DesignRush
/Create Modern Vue Apps Using Create-Vue and Vite
/How to Fix the “There Has Been a Critical Error in Your Website” Error in WordPress
How To Fix The “There Has Been A Critical Error in Your Website” Error in WordPress
/How Long Does It Take to Learn JavaScript?
/The Best Way to Deep Copy an Object in JavaScript
/Adding and Removing Elements From Arrays in JavaScript
/Create a JavaScript AJAX Post Request: With and Without jQuery
/5 Real-Life Uses for the JavaScript reduce() Method
/How to Enable or Disable a Button With JavaScript: jQuery vs. Vanilla
/How to Enable or Disable a Button With JavaScript: jQuery vs Vanilla
/Confirm Yes or No With JavaScript
/How to Change the URL in JavaScript: Redirecting
/15+ Best WordPress Twitter Widgets
/27 Best Tab and Accordion Widget Plugins for WordPress (Free & Premium)
/21 Best Tab and Accordion Widget Plugins for WordPress (Free & Premium)
/30 HTML Best Practices for Beginners
/31 Best WordPress Calendar Plugins and Widgets (With 5 Free Plugins)
/25 Ridiculously Impressive HTML5 Canvas Experiments
/How to Implement Email Verification for New Members
/How to Create a Simple Web-Based Chat Application
/30 Popular WordPress User Interface Elements
/Top 18 Best Practices for Writing Super Readable Code
/Best Affiliate WooCommerce Plugins Compared
/18 Best WordPress Star Rating Plugins
/10+ Best WordPress Twitter Widgets
/20+ Best WordPress Booking and Reservation Plugins
/Working With Tables in React: Part Two
/Best CSS Animations and Effects on CodeCanyon
/30 CSS Best Practices for Beginners
/How to Create a Custom WordPress Plugin From Scratch
/10 Best Responsive HTML5 Sliders for Images and Text… and 3 Free Options
/16 Best Tab and Accordion Widget Plugins for WordPress
/18 Best WordPress Membership Plugins and 5 Free Plugins
/25 Best WooCommerce Plugins for Products, Pricing, Payments and More
/10 Best WordPress Twitter Widgets
1 /12 Best Contact Form PHP Scripts for 2020
/20 Popular WordPress User Interface Elements
/10 Best WordPress Star Rating Plugins
/12 Best CSS Animations on CodeCanyon
/12 Best WordPress Booking and Reservation Plugins
/12 Elegant CSS Pricing Tables for Your Latest Web Project
/24 Best WordPress Form Plugins for 2020
/14 Best PHP Event Calendar and Booking Scripts
/Create a Blog for Each Category or Department in Your WooCommerce Store
/8 Best WordPress Booking and Reservation Plugins
/Best Exit Popups for WordPress Compared
/Best Exit Popups for WordPress Compared
/11 Best Tab & Accordion WordPress Widgets & Plugins
/12 Best Tab & Accordion WordPress Widgets & Plugins
1New Course: Practical React Fundamentals
/Preview Our New Course on Angular Material
/Build Your Own CAPTCHA and Contact Form in PHP
/Object-Oriented PHP With Classes and Objects
/Best Practices for ARIA Implementation
/Accessible Apps: Barriers to Access and Getting Started With Accessibility
/Dramatically Speed Up Your React Front-End App Using Lazy Loading
/15 Best Modern JavaScript Admin Templates for React, Angular, and Vue.js
/15 Best Modern JavaScript Admin Templates for React, Angular and Vue.js
/19 Best JavaScript Admin Templates for React, Angular, and Vue.js
/New Course: Build an App With JavaScript and the MEAN Stack
/Hands-on With ARIA: Accessibility Recipes for Web Apps
/10 Best WordPress Facebook Widgets
13 /Hands-on With ARIA: Accessibility for eCommerce
/New eBooks Available for Subscribers
/Hands-on With ARIA: Homepage Elements and Standard Navigation
/Site Accessibility: Getting Started With ARIA
/How Secure Are Your JavaScript Open-Source Dependencies?
/New Course: Secure Your WordPress Site With SSL
/Testing Components in React Using Jest and Enzyme
/Testing Components in React Using Jest: The Basics
/15 Best PHP Event Calendar and Booking Scripts
/Create Interactive Gradient Animations Using Granim.js
/How to Build Complex, Large-Scale Vue.js Apps With Vuex
1 /Examples of Dependency Injection in PHP With Symfony Components
/Set Up Routing in PHP Applications Using the Symfony Routing Component
1 /A Beginner’s Guide to Regular Expressions in JavaScript
/Introduction to Popmotion: Custom Animation Scrubber
/Introduction to Popmotion: Pointers and Physics
/New Course: Connect to a Database With Laravel’s Eloquent ORM
/How to Create a Custom Settings Panel in WooCommerce
/Building the DOM faster: speculative parsing, async, defer and preload
1 /20 Useful PHP Scripts Available on CodeCanyon
3 /How to Find and Fix Poor Page Load Times With Raygun
/Introduction to the Stimulus Framework
/Single-Page React Applications With the React-Router and React-Transition-Group Modules
12 Best Contact Form PHP Scripts
1 /Getting Started With the Mojs Animation Library: The ShapeSwirl and Stagger Modules
/Getting Started With the Mojs Animation Library: The Shape Module
Getting Started With the Mojs Animation Library: The HTML Module
/Project Management Considerations for Your WordPress Project
/8 Things That Make Jest the Best React Testing Framework
/Creating an Image Editor Using CamanJS: Layers, Blend Modes, and Events
/New Short Course: Code a Front-End App With GraphQL and React
/Creating an Image Editor Using CamanJS: Applying Basic Filters
/Creating an Image Editor Using CamanJS: Creating Custom Filters and Blend Modes
/Modern Web Scraping With BeautifulSoup and Selenium
/Challenge: Create a To-Do List in React
1Deploy PHP Web Applications Using Laravel Forge
/Getting Started With the Mojs Animation Library: The Burst Module
/10 Things Men Can Do to Support Women in Tech
/A Gentle Introduction to Higher-Order Components in React: Best Practices
/Challenge: Build a React Component
/A Gentle Introduction to HOC in React: Learn by Example
/A Gentle Introduction to Higher-Order Components in React
/Creating Pretty Popup Messages Using SweetAlert2
/Creating Stylish and Responsive Progress Bars Using ProgressBar.js
/18 Best Contact Form PHP Scripts for 2022
/How to Make a Real-Time Sports Application Using Node.js
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Delete Post
/Set Up an OAuth2 Server Using Passport in Laravel
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Edit Post
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Add Post
/Introduction to Mocking in Python
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Show Post
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Home
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Login
/Creating Your First Angular App: Implement Routing
/Persisted WordPress Admin Notices: Part 4
/Creating Your First Angular App: Components, Part 2
/Persisted WordPress Admin Notices: Part 3
/Creating Your First Angular App: Components, Part 1
/How Laravel Broadcasting Works
/Persisted WordPress Admin Notices: Part 2
/Create Your First Angular App: Storing and Accessing Data
/Persisted WordPress Admin Notices: Part 1
/Error and Performance Monitoring for Web & Mobile Apps Using Raygun
/Using Luxon for Date and Time in JavaScript
7 /How to Create an Audio Oscillator With the Web Audio API
/How to Cache Using Redis in Django Applications
/20 Essential WordPress Utilities to Manage Your Site
/Introduction to API Calls With React and Axios
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular 4: HTTP
/Rapid Web Deployment for Laravel With GitHub, Linode, and RunCloud.io
/Beginners Guide to Angular 4: Routing
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular 4: Services
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular 4: Components
/Creating a Drop-Down Menu for Mobile Pages
/Introduction to Forms in Angular 4: Writing Custom Form Validators
/10 Best WordPress Booking & Reservation Plugins
/Getting Started With Redux: Connecting Redux With React
/Getting Started With Redux: Learn by Example
/Getting Started With Redux: Why Redux?
/How to Auto Update WordPress Salts
/How to Download Files in Python
/Eloquent Mutators and Accessors in Laravel
1 /10 Best HTML5 Sliders for Images and Text
/Site Authentication in Node.js: User Signup
/Creating a Task Manager App Using Ionic: Part 2
/Creating a Task Manager App Using Ionic: Part 1
/Introduction to Forms in Angular 4: Reactive Forms
/Introduction to Forms in Angular 4: Template-Driven Forms
/24 Essential WordPress Utilities to Manage Your Site
/25 Essential WordPress Utilities to Manage Your Site
/Get Rid of Bugs Quickly Using BugReplay
1 /Manipulating HTML5 Canvas Using Konva: Part 1, Getting Started
/10 Must-See Easy Digital Downloads Extensions for Your WordPress Site
22 Best WordPress Booking and Reservation Plugins
/Understanding ExpressJS Routing
/15 Best WordPress Star Rating Plugins
/Creating Your First Angular App: Basics
/Inheritance and Extending Objects With JavaScript
/Introduction to the CSS Grid Layout With Examples
1Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 5, Easing Functions and Attributes
Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 4, Animating Text
/Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 3, Animating SVG
/New Course: Code a Quiz App With Vue.js
/Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 2, Animating CSS Properties
Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 1, Getting Started
/10 Best Responsive HTML5 Sliders for Images and Text (Plus 3 Free Options)
/Single-Page Applications With ngRoute and ngAnimate in AngularJS
/Deferring Tasks in Laravel Using Queues
/Site Authentication in Node.js: User Signup and Login
/Working With Tables in React, Part Two
/Working With Tables in React, Part One
/How to Set Up a Scalable, E-Commerce-Ready WordPress Site Using ClusterCS
/New Course on WordPress Conditional Tags
/TypeScript for Beginners, Part 5: Generics
/Building With Vue.js 2 and Firebase
6 /Best Unique Bootstrap JavaScript Plugins
/Essential JavaScript Libraries and Frameworks You Should Know About
/Vue.js Crash Course: Create a Simple Blog Using Vue.js
/Build a React App With a Laravel RESTful Back End: Part 1, Laravel 5.5 API
/API Authentication With Node.js
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular: Routing
/Beginners Guide to Angular: Routing
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular: Services
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular: Components
/How to Create a Custom Authentication Guard in Laravel
/Learn Computer Science With JavaScript: Part 3, Loops
/Build Web Applications Using Node.js
/Learn Computer Science With JavaScript: Part 4, Functions
/Learn Computer Science With JavaScript: Part 2, Conditionals
/Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 5: Pie and Gauge Charts
/Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 4: Bubble and Dot Charts
Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 3: Bar Charts
/Awesome JavaScript Libraries and Frameworks You Should Know About
/Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 2: Line Charts
/Bulk Import a CSV File Into MongoDB Using Mongoose With Node.js
/Build a To-Do API With Node, Express, and MongoDB
/Getting Started With End-to-End Testing in Angular Using Protractor
/TypeScript for Beginners, Part 4: Classes
/Object-Oriented Programming With JavaScript
/10 Best Affiliate WooCommerce Plugins Compared
/Stateful vs. Stateless Functional Components in React
/Make Your JavaScript Code Robust With Flow
/Build a To-Do API With Node and Restify
/Testing Components in Angular Using Jasmine: Part 2, Services
/Testing Components in Angular Using Jasmine: Part 1
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 6: Tags
/React Crash Course for Beginners, Part 3
/React Crash Course for Beginners, Part 2
/React Crash Course for Beginners, Part 1
/Set Up a React Environment, Part 4
1 /Set Up a React Environment, Part 3
/New Course: Get Started With Phoenix
/Set Up a React Environment, Part 2
/Set Up a React Environment, Part 1
/Command Line Basics and Useful Tricks With the Terminal
/How to Create a Real-Time Feed Using Phoenix and React
/Build a React App With a Laravel Back End: Part 2, React
/Build a React App With a Laravel RESTful Back End: Part 1, Laravel 9 API
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 5: Profile Page
/Pagination in CodeIgniter: The Complete Guide
/JavaScript-Based Animations Using Anime.js, Part 4: Callbacks, Easings, and SVG
/JavaScript-Based Animations Using Anime.js, Part 3: Values, Timeline, and Playback
/Learn to Code With JavaScript: Part 1, The Basics
/10 Elegant CSS Pricing Tables for Your Latest Web Project
/Getting Started With the Flux Architecture in React
/Getting Started With Matter.js: The Composites and Composite Modules
Getting Started With Matter.js: The Engine and World Modules
/10 More Popular HTML5 Projects for You to Use and Study
/Understand the Basics of Laravel Middleware
/Iterating Fast With Django & Heroku
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 4: Update & Delete Posts
/Creating a jQuery Plugin for Long Shadow Design
/How to Register & Use Laravel Service Providers
2 /Unit Testing in React: Shallow vs. Static Testing
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 3: Add & Display Post
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 2: User Sign-Up
20 /Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 1: User Sign-In
/Creating a Grocery List Manager Using Angular, Part 2: Managing Items
/9 Elegant CSS Pricing Tables for Your Latest Web Project
/Dynamic Page Templates in WordPress, Part 3
/Angular vs. React: 7 Key Features Compared
/Creating a Grocery List Manager Using Angular, Part 1: Add & Display Items
New eBooks Available for Subscribers in June 2017
/Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 1: Getting Started
/The 5 Best IDEs for WordPress Development (And Why)
/33 Popular WordPress User Interface Elements
/New Course: How to Hack Your Own App
/How to Install Yii on Windows or a Mac
/What Is a JavaScript Operator?
/How to Register and Use Laravel Service Providers
/
waly Good blog post. I absolutely love this…