Changing the WordPress Database Prefix to Increase Website Security

• December 16, 2016
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Your whole website depends on the WordPress Database, which is the ultimate target for hackers. During installation, website owners forget to change the default prefix wp_. In this article, you will learn the easiest way to protect your WP database by changing the default prefix.

All you need to do is replacing the default prefix wp_ with a unique prefix, for example my_cu232302om_. In this way, you can increase your website security as now it will be difficult for the hackers to find the unique prefix.

To replace the default prefix with a unique prefix, you need to follow the steps mentioned below:

1. First of all, take the backup of your WordPress database. For this, you can utilize BackupBuddy plug-in available at WordPress repository.
2. After that, you need to turn on the maintenance mode while changing the prefixes so that the user can be redirected to a temporary maintenance page. To do so, you can install any plug-in available at WordPress repository.
3. To change Table Prefix, you need to go to WordPress root directory and open wp-config.php file. From this file, you can change the table prefix line $table_prefix = wp_ with the custom prefix like $table_prefix = my_cu232302om_. You can only change it with numbers, letters and underscores.
4. In order to change all database table names, you need to access your database first via phpMyAdmin or SQLyog. In this way, you will be able to change database table names with custom prefix that you have already replaced in wp-config.php. But if you are using cPanel WordPress hosting, then you can find phpMyAdmin link in your cPanel.
5. Changing table names manually is not a good practice. You can run SQL queries after clicking on the SQL tab in phpMyAdmin. Additionally, you can add lines for other plug-in tables. Following are the sample queries generated for WordPress default tables:
   
   RENAME table `wp_commentmeta` TO `my_cu232302om_commentmeta`;

   1	RENAME table `wp_commentmeta` TO `my_cu232302om_commentmeta`;

   
   
   RENAME table `wp_comments` TO `my_cu232302om_comments`;

   1	RENAME table `wp_comments` TO `my_cu232302om_comments`;

   
   
   RENAME table `wp_links` TO `my_cu232302om_links`;

   1	RENAME table `wp_links` TO `my_cu232302om_links`;

   
   
   RENAME table `wp_options` TO `my_cu232302om_options`;

   1	RENAME table `wp_options` TO `my_cu232302om_options`;

   
   
   RENAME table `wp_postmeta` TO `my_cu232302om_postmeta`;

   1	RENAME table `wp_postmeta` TO `my_cu232302om_postmeta`;

   
   
   RENAME table `wp_posts` TO `my_cu232302om_posts`;

   1	RENAME table `wp_posts` TO `my_cu232302om_posts`;

   
   
   RENAME table `wp_terms` TO `my_cu232302om_terms`;

   1	RENAME table `wp_terms` TO `my_cu232302om_terms`;

   
   
   RENAME table `wp_termmeta` TO `my_cu232302om_termmeta`;

   1	RENAME table `wp_termmeta` TO `my_cu232302om_termmeta`;

   
   
   RENAME table `wp_term_relationships` TO `my_cu232302om_term_relationships`;

   1	RENAME table `wp_term_relationships` TO `my_cu232302om_term_relationships`;

   
   
   RENAME table `wp_term_taxonomy` TO `my_cu232302om_term_taxonomy`;

   1	RENAME table `wp_term_taxonomy` TO `my_cu232302om_term_taxonomy`;

   
   
   RENAME table `wp_usermeta` TO `my_cu232302om_usermeta`;

   1	RENAME table `wp_usermeta` TO `my_cu232302om_usermeta`;

   
   
   RENAME table `wp_users` TO `my_cu232302om_users`;

   1	RENAME table `wp_users` TO `my_cu232302om_users`;

6. Now you need to replace some prefixes in the options table. For this, run the following query and replace Theme with the new prefix:
   
   SELECT * FROM `my_cu232302om_options` WHERE `option_name` LIKE '%wp_%'

   1	SELECT * FROM `my_cu232302om_options` WHERE `option_name` LIKE '%wp_%'

7. The next step is to change the prefix in usermeta table. To do so, run the following query:
   
   SELECT * FROM `wp_a123456_usermeta` WHERE `meta_key` LIKE'%wp_%'

   1	SELECT * FROM `wp_a123456_usermeta` WHERE `meta_key` LIKE'%wp_%'

8. The final step is to take the backup of your changed WordPress database and test it. It should work fine now.