Security News > 2020 > June > Botnet blasts WordPress sites with configuration download attacks
Security researchers at WordFence, a company that's focused on securing WordPress, have reported a burst of old-school attacks that are after your WordPress configuration data.
This file is located in the root of your WordPress file directory and contains your website's base configuration details, such as database connection information.
Normal WordPress requests received from outside are constrained to the part of your WordPress installation where your site data lives, so in theory it's impossible to construct a URL that reaches "Across and upwards" from the directory that holds your public data into the directory that holds your site's configuration files and internal data.
Researchers at WordFence say that over the past month they've seen close to a million different WordPress sites receive malicious requests designed to shake loose their wp-config.
Even with read access to your configuration file, a crook may be able to use the security information in it to get unauthorised access to your WordPress databases.