Baskerville AI Security vs OpenPorte Spam Protection

Baskerville is a comprehensive WordPress security plugin that protects your site from malicious bots, AI crawlers, and unwanted traffic using multiple detection methods. Key Features: AI Bot Detection – Intelligent classification of bots vs. humans with configurable score thresholds GeoIP Access Control – Block or allow traffic by country (whitelist/blacklist modes) Cloudflare Turnstile – CAPTCHA challenge for borderline bot scores with precision analytics Browser Fingerprinting – Advanced client-side fingerprinting (Canvas, WebGL, Audio) Honeypot Detection – Hidden links to catch AI crawlers Real-Time Analytics – Live feed, traffic statistics, and Turnstile precision metrics Under Attack Mode – Emergency mode to challenge all visitors during attacks IP Whitelist – Bypass firewall for trusted IPs Form Protection – Protect login, registration, and comment forms with Turnstile Bot Score System: 0-39: Likely human (allowed) 40-70: Borderline (optional Turnstile challenge) 71-100: Likely bot (blocked) Performance: Minimal overhead (~1ms with page cache, ~30-50ms without) APCu + file-based caching for GeoIP lookups Compatible with all major caching plugins External Services This plugin connects to the following third-party services: Cloudflare Turnstile When Turnstile is enabled, the plugin loads JavaScript from Cloudflare’s servers to display CAPTCHA challenges: Service URL: https://challenges.cloudflare.com/turnstile/v0/api.js Verification API: https://challenges.cloudflare.com/turnstile/v0/siteverify Data sent: Turnstile token, visitor IP address Purpose: Human verification to prevent bot access Privacy Policy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/ Terms of Service: https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/ Turnstile is only loaded when you enable it in plugin settings and provide your Cloudflare API keys. MaxMind GeoIP Database When you use the one-click GeoIP database installer, the plugin downloads the GeoLite2-Country database from MaxMind: Database download URL: https://download.maxmind.com/ Data sent: Your MaxMind license key (required for database download) Purpose: Determine visitor country for geo-blocking features Privacy Policy: https://www.maxmind.com/en/privacy-policy Terms of Service: https://www.maxmind.com/en/geolite2/eula The installer also downloads the MaxMind PHP libraries from GitHub: GeoIP2 PHP API: https://github.com/maxmind/GeoIP2-php/archive/refs/tags/v2.13.0.zip MaxMind DB Reader: https://github.com/maxmind/MaxMind-DB-Reader-php/archive/refs/tags/v1.11.1.zip These are open-source libraries used to read the local GeoIP database. No visitor data is sent to GitHub. GitHub Terms of Service: https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-terms-of-service GitHub Privacy Statement: https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/privacy-policies/github-general-privacy-statement The database is stored locally on your server. No visitor data is sent to MaxMind during lookups. Privacy Data Collected This plugin collects and stores the following visitor data locally in your WordPress database: IP addresses Browser fingerprints (Canvas, WebGL, Audio hashes) User agent strings Country codes (derived from IP) Bot scores and classifications Timestamps of visits Data Retention Statistics are automatically deleted after the retention period you configure (default: 14 days). You can adjust this in Settings > Baskerville > Settings. GDPR Compliance All data is stored locally on your server No visitor data is shared with third parties (except Cloudflare when Turnstile verification occurs) Data retention is configurable Consider adding disclosure to your site’s privacy policy

OpenPorte is a free and open-source plugin that protects WordPress forms from spam using a lightweight Proof-of-Work challenge instead of CAPTCHAs. The goal is to make spam expensive for bots while keeping the experience almost invisible for legitimate visitors and respecting their privacy. For site owners, OpenPorte offers an easy to configure and deploy modern spam protection under their control. For the site users, it offers an accessible, transparent and privacy-friendly alternative to CAPTCHAs. OpenPorte is built around the open-source ALTCHA widget. Some highlights: CAPTCHA-free spam protection Fully open source (GPL) Self-hosted – no mandatory external service Designed to be accessible and privacy-friendly Compatible with existing ALTCHA integrations Easy migration for users of ALTCHA Spam Protection v1 (≤ 1.26.3) For the list of contributors, refer to our GitHub project: Contributors. AI-assisted development AI-assisted project. Architecture, security decisions, and final review are mine; AI tools (Claude, Mistral, and others) help with drafting code, tests, translations, and documentation — without them, one person couldn’t keep this fork alive. Background The original ALTCHA Spam Protection WordPress plugin (v1) was open source (GPLv2). Its authors have since released a version 2/3 which is no longer open source. They no longer maintain the open source project and recommend that users migrate to v2/v3. See the official project at https://altcha.org for their offering. OpenPorte started as a fork and continues the v1 line as free software (GPLv2 or later) for users who want to stay on a fully open-source, self-hosted solution. It is a faithful fork: existing v1 installations can switch to OpenPorte and keep their settings (see Upgrading). Compatibility OpenPorte is backward-compatible with ALTCHA Spam Protection v1 plugin: Your existing settings are migrated automatically on activation. The [altcha] shortcode keeps working (alongside the new [openporte]). The altcha_* filters and actions keep firing as deprecated aliases. Custom API Mode has been verified against GateCHA, an open source server implementing the creation and verification of ALTCHA challenges. See the Deprecations section for the full list of compatibility aliases and what they map to. Upgrading From the original ALTCHA v1 plugin Deactivate the old ALTCHA plugin, then install and activate OpenPorte. Your existing configuration is detected and copied into the OpenPorte settings on first activation; the original ALTCHA settings are left untouched, so you can roll back to ALTCHA v1 without losing anything. Do not run both plugins at the same time. From ALTCHA v2/v3 If your site was already moved to ALTCHA v2/v3 (for example by the automatic 3.0.0 update), your original v1 settings are normally still in the database: the v2/v3 upgrade neither migrates nor removes them. Deactivate ALTCHA, then install and activate OpenPorte — it finds and imports the v1 settings, even when the v1 plugin itself has long been deleted. Settings made in v2/v3 are not read. Deprecations The following ALTCHA-era identifiers are kept as aliases for backward compatibility and are scheduled for removal in a future release: The [altcha] shortcode — use [openporte]. The altcha/v1 REST namespace — use openporte/v1. The altcha_* filters and actions — now firing through WordPress’ deprecated hook mechanism; use the openporte_* equivalents. The AltchaPlugin class and the ALTCHA_VERSION / ALTCHA_WIDGET_VERSION constants — use OpenPortePlugin and the OPENPORTE_* constants. Integrations targeting paid-only third-party plugins; affected users should migrate to the official ALTCHA v2/v3 plugin. The “Custom HTML” integration (auto-configuration of hand-written tags) — place the [openporte] shortcode instead. You can re-enable it for now under Settings → OpenPorte → Integrations. Privacy No cookies, no tracking OpenPorte prioritizes user privacy by avoiding the use of cookies and fingerprinting techniques. No external service This plugin remains fully contained within your WordPress installation, eliminating any reliance on external services. Modes of Operation OpenPorte verifies submissions in one of two modes, selected in the settings (API Mode): Self-hosted (default) — a proof-of-work challenge is issued and verified by your own WordPress site through the REST API. Fully self-contained, with no external service and no additional setup beyond enabling the integrations you need. Custom — point the Challenge URL at your own ALTCHA-compatible backend (for example a self-hosted ALTCHA Sentinel, or GateCHA). Submissions are verified with your site’s shared secret. The paid altcha.org regional SaaS classifier offered by earlier versions has been removed; both remaining modes are free and self-hostable. REST API This plugin requires the WordPress REST API. If you are using any “Disable REST API” plugins, ensure that the endpoint /altcha/v1/challenge (marked for deprecation) and /openporte/v1/challenge are allowed. Supported Integrations CoBlocks Contact Form 7 Elementor Pro Forms (deprecated — paid plugin, see Deprecations) Formidable Forms Forminator GravityForms HTML Forms wpDiscuz WPForms WordPress Login, Register, Password reset WordPress Comments WooCommerce Many other plugins and your own content (via the [openporte] shortcode, or the deprecated [altcha] alias) Source Code All source code for the plugin, and the ALTCHA widget is available on GitHub. In the repository, you’ll also find versions of non-minified JavaScript and CSS assets: Plugin: https://github.com/openporte/openporte ALTCHA Widget: https://github.com/altcha-org/altcha