Eric Mann

Rather than sending usernames and passwords in plain text with every request, we’re going to use a set of public/secret keys to hash data and authenticate instead.
On your WordPress profile, you will see a new “Remote Publishing Permissions” section listing out the applications that have permission to publish, along with their public and secret keys.
New applications can be added whenever you want. You can also change the names of applications, or revoke publishing permission by deleting them.
<h3>Additional Information</h3>
Lock graphic designed by Scott Lewis from the thenounproject.com

Secure XML-RPC

More secure wrapper for the WordPress XML-RPC interface.

Walter Ebert

This plugin does more than just using the <code>xmlrpc_enabled</code> hook, because that is only used “To disable XML-RPC methods that require authentication”.
Activating this plugin will also disable pingbacks, trackbacks, and Really Simple Discovery (RSD), because these rely on XML-RPC.
It works with any webserver, because it does not use the .htaccess file.
<h4>Testing the plugin</h4>
From the command line you can test if the plugin is working correctly using <a href="https://curl.haxx.se/" rel="nofollow ugc">cURL</a>. Replace the <code>example.com</code> link to match your website:
<pre><code>curl -d '<?xml version="1.0"?><methodCall><methodName>system.listMethods</methodName><params><param><value><string/></value></param></params></methodCall>' https://example.com/xmlrpc.php
</code></pre>
This should only return the following methods: 
– <code>system.multicall</code> 
– <code>system.listMethods</code> 
– <code>system.getCapabilities</code>

Remove XML-RPC Methods

Remove all WordPress methods from the XML-RPC API to increase security.

Secure XML-RPC vs Remove XML-RPC Methods