I have been looking through my awstats and I notice that every month I have a bunch of 404 errors. When I look in the list to see if there is anything wrong with my site, I notice that it is usually a bunch of things that people are trying to hack into my site. However, this is the most common file: xmlrpc.php... The url/hiarchy is usually different but someone/something is looking for this file.

Can anyone tell me what this file is?

It is a common file in forum software that is exploitable. (well in older none patched versions).

You can gain access to the directory that this script resides in (if i remember correctly) whcih then allows the would be attacker to do all sort of bad things.

Quite simply do not rely on 3rd party apps without checking them vigorously first.

"I would be supprised if no-one with a php website has not found requests for this file anywhere"

Ibbo

Thanks. I don't run any forums so I guess I have nothing to worry about there. But, from now on if I am going to use any 3rd party software I'll post and ask for bugs/exploits first.

Thanks for the tip!