Apocalypse Meow vs Login Armor

Apocalypse Meow’s main focus is addressing WordPress security issues related to user accounts and logins. This includes things like: Brute-force login-in protection; Customizable password strength requirements; XML-RPC access controls; Account access alerts; Searchable access logs (including failed login attempts and temporary bans); User enumeration prevention; Registration SPAM protection; Miscellaneous Core and template options to make targeted hacks more difficult; Anonymize/scrub leaky remote request headers; Security is an admittedly technical subject, but Apocalypse Meow strives to help educate “normal” users about the nature of common web attacks, mitigation techniques, etc. Every option contains detailed explanations and links to external resources with additional information. Knowledge is power! Requirements Due to the advanced nature of some of the plugin features, there are a few additional server requirements beyond what WordPress itself requires: WordPress 4.4+. PHP 7.4 or later. PHP extensions: (bcmath or gmp), date, filter, json, pcre. CREATE and DROP MySQL grants. Single-site Installs (i.e. Multi-Site is not supported). Please note: it is not safe to run WordPress atop a version of PHP that has reached its End of Life. Future releases of this plugin might, out of necessity, drop support for old, unmaintained versions of PHP. To ensure you continue to receive plugin updates, bug fixes, and new features, just make sure PHP is kept up-to-date. 🙂 Log Monitoring Some robots are so dumb they’ll continue trying to submit credentials even after the login form is replaced, wasting system resources and clogging up the log-in history table. One way to mitigate this is to use a server-side log-monitoring program like Fail2Ban or OSSEC to ban users via the firewall. Apocalypse Meow produces a 403 error when a banned user requests the login form. Your log-monitoring rule should therefore look for repeated 403 responses to wp-login.php. Additionally, some robots are unable to follow redirects; if your login form requires SSL, you should also ban repeated 301/302 responses to catch those fools. If you have enabled user enumeration protection with the die() option, requests for ?author=X will produce a 400 response code which can be similarly tracked. Privacy Policy When active, this plugin retains security logs of every sign-in attempt made to the CMS backend. This information — including the end user’s public IP address, username, and the status of his or her attempt — is used to help prevent unauthorized system access and maintain Quality of Service for all site visitors. This information resides fully on the hosting web site and is not shared with any third parties. Data retention is entirely up to the site operator, but by default old records are automatically removed after 90 days. Please note: Apocalypse Meow DOES NOT integrate with any WordPress GDPR “Personal Data” features. (Selective erasure of audit logs would undermine the security mechanisms provided by this plugin. Haha.)

🇫🇷 Fully translated into French. Interface et documentation intégralement disponibles en français. Thirteen security modules. One lightweight plugin. No premium tier. Login Armor protects WordPress login, accounts and administration with thirteen independent modules. It is built for agencies, freelancers and site owners who want practical security, clear evidence and safe defaults without a remote dashboard, bundled telemetry or upsells. Why Login Armor Complete and free: every module is included under the GPL. Lightweight: modules load only when needed and normal login checks add less than 2 ms on a typical setup. Private by default: data stays on your site. Optional external calls are disabled until you enable the related feature. Ready for real sites: multisite support, reverse-proxy controls, WP-CLI commands and production-safe defaults. Thirteen security modules Hide Login: replace wp-login.php with a private slug and return a 404 or redirect blocked visitors to a chosen URL. Brute Force Protection: escalating lockouts, subnet blocking, trusted proxy headers and coverage for login, password recovery, registration, XML-RPC and REST users. Hardening: fifteen controls for XML-RPC, pingbacks, file editing, version exposure, application passwords, author enumeration, reserved usernames, honeypots and new-admin alerts. Two-Factor Authentication: TOTP, email codes, backup codes, trusted devices, per-role enforcement, grace periods and recovery. Detection and Incidents: group raw events into attack patterns with severity, timelines, source IPs, targeted users and one-click actions. Activity Log: tamper-evident admin audit trail with filters, CSV export, retention controls and optional signed SIEM forwarding. Security Headers: CSP, X-Frame-Options, Permissions-Policy, Referrer-Policy and X-Content-Type-Options for login and lockout pages, with optional site-wide baseline headers. Breach Check: privacy-preserving Have I Been Pwned password checks and an optional XposedOrNot email check. Password Policy: length and character rules, username exclusion, breached-password rejection and optional non-locking expiration reminders. Session Management: idle timeout, maximum lifetime, optional single-device access and one-click revocation of other sessions. IP Geolocation: cached country lookup for IPs shown in Incidents and Events, with private ranges excluded. Request Firewall: optional, monitor-first filtering of malicious paths, query strings and HTTP methods, with administrator exclusions and IP/path allowlists. Bot Challenge: an invisible proof-of-work the browser solves before the login form is accepted, an alternative to CAPTCHAs with no external service; monitor-first, then enforce. Additional tools Login Armor also includes guided onboarding, a 0-100 security score, conflict detection, email/Slack/Discord/webhook notifications, a dashboard widget and a complete WP-CLI suite. The optional AI Security Briefing uses your own WordPress AI connector to explain a thirty-day security snapshot or a single incident. It always starts with deterministic facts, works without AI and sends nothing until an administrator explicitly requests an analysis. GPL forever. PHP 8.1+. WordPress 6.8+. Zero dependencies. Treize modules de sécurité. Une seule extension légère. Aucune version premium. Login Armor protège la connexion, les comptes et l’administration de WordPress grâce à treize modules indépendants. L’extension s’adresse aux agences, freelances et propriétaires de sites qui veulent une sécurité concrète, des preuves lisibles et des réglages sûrs, sans tableau de bord distant, télémétrie imposée ni upsell. Pourquoi Login Armor Complet et gratuit : tous les modules sont inclus sous licence GPL. Léger : les modules se chargent uniquement lorsque nécessaire et les contrôles ajoutent moins de 2 ms sur une connexion normale. Privé par défaut : les données restent sur votre site. Les appels externes optionnels sont désactivés tant que vous n’activez pas la fonction concernée. Prêt pour la production : multisite, reverse proxies, commandes WP-CLI et réglages par défaut sécurisés. Treize modules de sécurité Masquer la connexion : remplace wp-login.php par un slug privé et renvoie une 404 ou redirige les visiteurs bloqués vers l’URL choisie. Protection contre la force brute : verrouillages progressifs, blocage de sous-réseaux, proxies de confiance et protection de la connexion, récupération, inscription, XML-RPC et REST users. Renforcement : quinze contrôles pour XML-RPC, les pingbacks, l’éditeur de fichiers, la version, les mots de passe applicatifs, l’énumération d’auteurs, les identifiants réservés, le pot de miel et les alertes nouvel administrateur. Authentification à deux facteurs : TOTP, codes par e-mail, codes de secours, appareils de confiance, application par rôle, période de grâce et récupération. Détection et incidents : regroupe les événements en scénarios d’attaque avec sévérité, chronologie, IP sources, comptes ciblés et actions immédiates. Journal d’activité : piste d’audit admin infalsifiable avec filtres, export CSV, rétention et transfert SIEM signé optionnel. En-têtes de sécurité : CSP, X-Frame-Options, Permissions-Policy, Referrer-Policy et X-Content-Type-Options pour les pages de connexion et de verrouillage, avec en-têtes de base optionnels sur tout le site. Détection de fuites : vérification confidentielle des mots de passe via Have I Been Pwned et contrôle optionnel des e-mails via XposedOrNot. Politique de mot de passe : longueur, classes de caractères, exclusion de l’identifiant, rejet des mots de passe compromis et rappels d’expiration non bloquants. Gestion des sessions : délai d’inactivité, durée maximale, accès limité à un appareil et révocation des autres sessions. Géolocalisation IP : pays des IP affichées dans Incidents et Événements, avec cache et exclusion des plages privées. Pare-feu de requêtes : filtrage optionnel, d’abord en surveillance, des chemins, requêtes et méthodes HTTP malveillants, avec exclusion des administrateurs et listes d’autorisation IP/chemins. Défi anti-bot : une preuve de calcul invisible résolue par le navigateur avant validation du formulaire de connexion, alternative aux CAPTCHA sans service externe ; d’abord en surveillance, puis en blocage. Outils complémentaires Login Armor inclut aussi un assistant de configuration, un score de sécurité de 0 à 100, la détection de conflits, les notifications par e-mail, Slack, Discord ou webhook, un widget de tableau de bord et une suite WP-CLI complète. Le briefing de sécurité IA optionnel utilise votre propre connecteur IA WordPress pour expliquer les trente derniers jours ou un incident précis. Il commence toujours par des faits déterministes, fonctionne sans IA et n’envoie rien tant qu’un administrateur ne demande pas explicitement une analyse. Conçu par Login Armor est conçu et maintenu par Fabrice Ducarme de WPFormation. Nous l’utilisons sur chaque site que nous livrons. Présentation et fonctionnement de Login Armor Guides de sécurité WordPress sur WPFormation Veille des vulnérabilités WordPress sur WPFormation GPL pour toujours. PHP 8.1+. WordPress 6.8+. Zéro dépendance. External Services Login Armor has no telemetry and requires no Login Armor account. The following services are contacted only when WordPress itself or an administrator enables the related feature. WordPress AI connector (optional) The AI Security Briefing sends a security prompt through the administrator’s own WordPress AI connector only after they click an analysis button. Minimised mode sends counts, categories, severities and role buckets without clear IP addresses or usernames. Explicit deep mode also sends IP addresses and event details. Login Armor stores no provider API key. The selected AI provider’s terms and privacy policy apply. Slack, Discord or custom webhook (optional) When an administrator enables an incident notification channel, Login Armor sends the incident type, severity, IP address, target username, event count and site URL to the configured endpoint. The separate signed Activity Log forwarding option sends the event, object, user ID/login/role, IP address, description, integrity hashes, site URL and plugin version to the administrator’s SIEM or custom webhook. Slack: Terms | Privacy Discord: Terms | Privacy Custom webhook: terms and privacy are controlled by the administrator’s chosen endpoint. Gravatar The Activity Log uses WordPress core’s get_avatar(). If avatars are enabled in WordPress, a hashed email address may be sent to Gravatar to retrieve the image. Gravatar: Terms | Privacy Have I Been Pwned (optional) Breach Check and the optional compromised-password policy send only the first 5 characters of a password’s SHA-1 hash to the Pwned Passwords API. The password and full hash never leave the site. Checks fail soft if the service is unavailable. Public registration and password-reset validation do not call the service; authenticated checks remain active. Have I Been Pwned: Privacy | Acceptable Use XposedOrNot (optional) The separate Email check, disabled by default, sends the user’s email address and a plugin-identifying User-Agent to XposedOrNot when a user is created or changes email. XposedOrNot: Service | Privacy ipwho.is (optional) IP Geolocation sends a displayed public IP address to ipwho.is when an administrator opens Incidents or Events. Results are cached for 30 days. Private and reserved ranges are never sent, and developers can replace the lookup through the login_armor_geoip_lookup filter. ipwho.is: Service | Documentation