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Asked this question on Bitcoin SE was told to post it here.

I'm developing a custom Bitcoin service. Besides for the core application (which is written in PHP) I'm going to install a blog for updates and news.

Although I would never try to tweak WordPress itself to provide the core functionality I need (as this would pose a great security risk), I'm thinking of installing WordPress on a sub domain and using it exclusively for blogging (as it is the most well known and easy to manage CMS).

However, my concern is the following: Would this make my core application more vulnerable to be hacked? As I said, it's going to be installed on a unique subdomain (i.e, blog.mysite.com) and database files would be segregated. But I'm still concerned that once a hacker penetrates the WP part he might be able to breach the main site more easily.

I have seen several big players in the Bitcoin space use WP as their blogging platform but I see others use less popular CMS such as ghost.org (which is purportedly more secure than WP).

Are my concerns well-founded?

Design X
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  • In short: if the server has been compromised, then consider all services running on the same server, all information stored on this server (like passwords or keys to access other systems) and easily reachable other systems compromised too - no matter if they use the same domain or not. It does not matter if the system was compromised due to a bug in Wordpress or something else for this. Apart from that one should better use a completely different domain since cookies can span subdomains and this can be misused in some cases. – Steffen Ullrich Feb 08 '21 at 06:13
  • @SteffenUllrich thanks for your insight. Can you elaborate on how an attacker might gain access to another service running on the same server once he compromises one component? Obviously, I would be using two different passwords for each component. I'm just trying to gain a better grasp on the mechanism an attacker might use to exploit the system. Also, would recommend installing blog on mysiteblog.com instead of mysite.com? What about hosting blog.mysite.com on a different server? If you could turn your comment into an answer while addressing above concerns it would be super helpful. Thanks! – Design X Feb 08 '21 at 22:54
  • Of course it depends on the specific vulnerabilities. But for example due to some command injection, uploading PHP files or sql injection the hacker might get the ability to execute on the target machine (RCE - remote code execution). From there issues in the underlying OS and tools (like [this recent one](https://www.zdnet.com/article/10-years-old-sudo-bug-lets-linux-users-gain-root-level-access/)) can be used to elevate privileges to full system compromise. Also once the attacker is on the machine it might connect to and attack other only internally reaching machines from there. – Steffen Ullrich Feb 09 '21 at 07:08

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