Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection vs VMP Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security

Reduce your WordPress website’s risk to nearly zero with Kadence Security Formerly iThemes Security. Looking for iThemes? Learn more here. On average, 30,000 websites are hacked every day.* Cyberattacks in the US increased by 57% in 2022.** Bad actors who want to hack your site, steal your data, and cripple your business are a 24/7/365 threat. You need a proactive, strategic approach to WordPress website security that protects your site from brute force attacks, malware infections, and other cyber threats. Kadence Security shields your site from cyberattacks and prevents security vulnerabilities. It automatically locks out bad users identified by our Brute Force Protection Network that is nearly 1 million sites strong and leverages your own blacklist. It secures and protects your most commonly attacked part of your WordPress website – user login authentication. With Patchstack integration (Pro) protects your site before you even have a chance to address vulnerabilities and before a plugin or theme vendor or developer can even issue a patch. That’s 24/7/365 always-on truly Kadence Security. 🌐 Secure your Website in Minutes The Kadence Security setup and onboarding experience allows anyone to secure their WordPress website in under 10 minutes, regardless of technical acumen. Knowing that you have enabled all the right security settings for your website will leave you feeling like your site has never been more secure. 📚 Security Site Templates to Fit Your Type of Site Enabling the correct security settings based on the type of website you are building or maintaining is essential for proper security. An eCommerce site requires a different level of security than a basic blog. Kadence Security Site Templates make it quick and easy to apply the right security settings for your website. Choose from six different site templates to apply the type of security your site needs: Ecommerce – websites that sell products or services Network – websites that connect people or communities Non-Profit – websites that promote your cause and collect donations Blog – websites that share your thoughts or start a conversation Portfolio – websites that showcase your craft Brochure – simple websites that promote your business ⌚ Real-Time Website Security Dashboard Every day, lots of activity is happening on your website that you can’t see. Many of these activities can be related to your site’s security, so monitoring these events is vital to keeping your site secure. The Kadence Security Pro plugin provides a real-time WordPress security dashboard that monitors security-related events on your site around the clock. The Kadence Security Dashboard is a dynamic dashboard with all your WordPress website’s security activity stats in one place, including brute force attacks, banned users, active lockouts, site scan results, and user security stats (Pro). 🗝️ WordPress Login Security Setting up and maintaining proper WordPress configurations and managing user account access are essential aspects of hardening your site against threats and vulnerabilities. Basic and Pro include features that address both of these factors. Two Factor Authentication (2FA) – Make your WordPress login nearly impenetrable to attack by requiring users to enter a security code along with a password to login. The Kadence Security plugin allows you to add two-factor authentication to your WordPress login with several authentication methods, including mobile apps like Authy and Google Authenticator, email, and backup codes. Password Requirements – Create and enforce a password policy for your users in less than a minute. reCAPTCHA (Pro) – Stop bad bots from engaging in abusive activities on your website, such as attempting to break into your website using compromised passwords, posting spam, or even scraping your content. Passwordless Logins (Pro) – WordPress security made easy. Secure your user accounts with 2fa & strong passwords while allowing real users login with a click of a mouse. Trusted Devices (Pro) – Identify the devices you and other users use to block session hijacking attacks and limit Administrator privileges to Trusted Devices. Automated Vulnerability Patching (Pro) – Kadence Security Pro includes Patchstack which patches vulnerabilities before you have a chance to and applies fixes even before a plugin developer or vendor has issued a patch. Learn more about how passwordless login is the future and how Kadence Security can help you implement it today. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 The Right Amount of Security for Every User Level Different types of user levels require different levels of security. During the Kadence Security setup process, you can identify your website’s key user groups. Once the different types of users are identified, you can apply the level of security that is just right for each user group. Here are a couple of examples of how User Groups are useful for securing your site: For Clients – Let’s say you are configuring Kadence Security on a client’s website. You will decide whether or not they are required to use two-factor authentication and if they should have access to the Kadence Security settings. For Customers – If you have an eCommerce website, you will decide whether or not you want to protect customer accounts with a password policy. Privilege Escalation (Pro) also adds a safe, secure way to grant temporary admin-level access to your website. 🤖 Block Bad Bots & Ban User Agents with Lockouts Ban Users (Basic and Pro) – Permanently block repeat offenders from accessing your site. Local Brute Force Protection – Automatically identify and stop the most common method of attack on WordPress sites. Local Brute Force Protection (Basic and Pro) – Automatically identify and stop the most common method of attack on WordPress sites. Network Brute Force Protection (Basic and Pro) – The network is the Kadence Security community and is nearly one million websites strong. If someone tries to break into websites in the Kadence Security community, Kadence Security will block them across the network. Magic Links (Pro) – Security shouldn’t get in your way. Magic Links allow you to log in to your WordPress site while your username is locked out by the Kadence Security Local Brute Force Protection feature. 🔍 Monitor Your Site’s Security Health File Change Detection (Basic and Pro) – Kadence Security logs changes made to your website that can help detect malicious activity on your website. Site Scanner (Basic and Pro) – Schedule checks to run four times per day (Basic) or hourly (Pro) for known vulnerabilities of WordPress core file, plugins and themes. Using the Google Safe Browsing API, the Site Scan also checks your Google’s blocklist status and will alert you if Google has found any malware on your website. Patchstack integration (Pro) – Automated virtual patching of some vulnerabilities before you even have a chance to address them yourself, and before a plugin or theme vendor or developer can even issue a patch. Site Scanner (Pro) – Unlock Version Management to automatically apply a patch to vulnerable software detected by the Site Scan when one is available. User Logging (Pro) – Keep a record of user activity in your WordPress security logs, including login/logout, user registration, adding/removing plugins, switching themes, changes to posts and pages, and more. Version Management (Pro) – The Version Management feature in Kadence Security Pro allows you to auto-update WordPress, plugins, and themes. Beyond that, Version Management also has options to harden your website when you are running outdated software and scan for old websites. 🧠 Smarter, More Actionable Vulnerability Prioritization Not all vulnerabilities pose the same level of risk, and the traditional Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) score doesn’t always reflect the realities of running a WordPress site. Kadence Security now uses the Patchstack Priority score, which goes beyond CVSS to provide a real-world risk assessment tailored to WordPress. It factors in how likely a vulnerability is to be exploited and its actual impact on your site. With Patchstack Priority, you get a clearer picture of what really matters, helping you focus on the vulnerabilities that pose the greatest risk, and worry less about noise from low-impact issues. 🛠️ Website Security Utilities Enforce SSL – Force all connections to the website to be made over SSL/TLS. Database Backups – Create backups of your WordPress database. (Not a complete backup.) Geolocation (Pro) – Improve Trusted Devices by connecting to an external location or mapping API. 🚀 Advanced Security Tools Identify Server IPs – Prevent issues caused by inadvertently locking out your server IPs. Change User ID 1 – Change the user ID for the first WordPress user, potentially preventing attacks that assume the user with ID1 exists and is an administrator. Change Database Prefix – Change the database prefix that WordPress uses, potentially preventing attacks that assume the database prefix is “wp_”. Check File Permission – See the file and directory permissions of key areas of your site. Server Config Rules – View or flush the server security rules generated by Kadence Security. wp-config.php Rules – View or flush the wp-config.php security rules generated by Kadence Security. Change WordPress Salts – Secure your site after a successful attack by changing the WordPress salts used to secure cookies and security tokens. Hide Login URL – change the login URL of your site, making it harder for bots to find your login page and attack it. 🛟 Need Help? Free support may be available with the community’s help in the WordPress.org support forums. Our Kadence Security support team provides top-notch technical support to all our Kadence Security Basic users there. Our Help Center will help you become an iThemes Security expert. Get additional peace of mind with professional support from our expert team and pro features to take your site’s security to the next level with Kadence Security Pro. Recover From a Hacked Site Kadence Security makes regular backups of your WordPress database, allowing you to get back online quickly in the event of a hack or security breach. Use Kadence Security to create and email database backups on a customizable schedule. For complete site backups and the ability to restore or move WordPress to a new host or domain, check out Solid Backups. Solid Central Integration Manage more than one WordPress site? Release lockouts and keep your themes, plugins, and WordPress core up to date from one dashboard with Solid Central. *Zippia. “30 Crucial Cybersecurity Statistics [2023]: Data, Trends And More” Zippia.com. Jun. 15, 2023, https://www.zippia.com/advice/cybersecurity-statistics/ **https://blog.checkpoint.com/2023/01/05/38-increase-in-2022-global-cyberattacks/ License Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

POWERFUL WORDPRESS SECURITY, FIREWALL & MALWARE SCANNER PLUGIN Every day, 3,500 websites are hacked or infected with malware. Don’t leave your site exposed. VMP Security is a powerful WordPress security plugin that gives you 750+ firewall rules, 9 specialized malware scanners, 170,000+ threat signatures, country blocking, audit log preview, two-factor authentication, and brute force protection. Free runs the full rule set and signature corpus on your site — new additions reach Free 30 days after Premium. Everything runs on your server, ensuring full website security and data privacy. Your files and database never leave your hosting environment. Remember, most WordPress security plugins hold back critical protection behind paywalls or delay updates for free users. VMP Security doesn’t. What’s Included ✅ Web Application Firewall — 750+ rules running on your site (new rule additions reach Free 30 days after Premium), zero-day detection, pre-WordPress execution mode ✅ 9 Malware Scanners — Malware, file integrity, CVE, user accounts, content, public files, server state, binary, domain reputation ✅ Country Blocking — Block by country, login-only or full-site (free — competitors charge for this) ✅ Custom Bot Allowlist — Allow trusted bots (SEO, AI, monitoring), verified by IP range, reverse DNS, or ASN — never a spoofable User-Agent ✅ Brute Force & Rate Limiting — Login limits, leaked password detection, bot throttling ✅ Two-Factor Authentication — QR setup, backup codes, role enforcement, WooCommerce support ✅ Audit Log & Live Traffic — Complete security event history with real-time monitoring ✅ Privacy-First — All scanning on your server. Files and database never sent externally. See It In Action How VMP Security Compares +------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+----------------------------+ | Feature | VMP Security Free | Wordfence Free | Wordfence Premium ($149/yr)| +------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+----------------------------+ | Firewall rules | ✅ - 750+ | ✅ | ✅ | | Real-time rule updates | ❌ - 30-day delay| ❌ - 30-day delay | ✅ | | Malware signatures | ✅ - 170,000+ | ✅ - 44,000+ | ✅ - 44,000+ | | Real-time signature updates | ❌ - 30-day delay| ❌ - 30-day delay | ✅ | | Malware scanners | ✅ 9 specialized | ✅ 1 general | ✅ 1 general | | Country blocking | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | | Audit log | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | | IP blocklist | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | | Two-factor authentication | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | +------------------------------+-------------------+-------------------+----------------------------+ 🔥 Web Application Firewall (WAF) Your first line of defense. Every request is inspected before it reaches WordPress. Blocks malicious traffic in real time, stopping threats before they can execute or exploit vulnerabilities. Runs before WordPress loads, reducing attack surface and protecting plugins, themes, and core files. What It Stops: SQL injection, cross-site scripting, code injection, file inclusion attacks, and more — all major attack types covered 750+ built-in security rules — full rule set running on Free; new rule additions reach Free 30 days after Premium Zero-day protection — pattern-based detection catches new, unknown threats Custom rules — add your own blocking patterns Attack logging — full audit trail of every blocked request Extended Protection (WAF Optimizer) Run the firewall before WordPress loads, so malicious requests are blocked before any vulnerable plugin or theme code can execute. One-click setup with automatic server detection for Apache and LiteSpeed, and built-in backup for safe configuration. Improves WordPress security by reducing attack surface, preventing exploit execution, and strengthening overall firewall protection at the earliest entry point. 🤖 Custom Bot Allowlist (New in 2.3.2) Let the bots you trust through — and stop the ones faking their name. Add any SEO crawler, AI agent, or monitoring service to your allowlist and VMP Security verifies it’s genuine before granting access. A copied User-Agent alone never gets in. Verified, not spoofable — Confirm bots by IP range, forward-confirmed reverse DNS, or network owner (ASN) — not an easily-faked user agent Self-updating IP lists — Vendors’ official published IP ranges (GPTBot, Perplexity, Bing, Apple, and more) are fetched and refreshed daily, so your allowlist never goes stale One-click presets — Ahrefs, Bing, Yandex, Baidu, Apple, Amazonbot, OpenAI (GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, OAI-SearchBot), Anthropic Claude, Perplexity, DuckDuckGo Add any bot — Bring your own with a custom user agent, IP ranges, DNS suffixes, or ASNs Safe by design — SSRF-hardened fetching with guardrails against over-broad ranges; allowlisting by user agent alone is blocked unless you explicitly accept the risk 🔍 9 Specialized Malware Scanners Not just a basic malware scanner. This is a complete WordPress malware scanner and website security system with 9 specialized scanners, each focused on a different threat type to ensure full protection. Detect, analyze, and remove threats with advanced scanning built for modern WordPress security vulnerabilities and malware attacks. Malware Scanner — 170,000+ signatures detect backdoors, trojans, and malicious code File Integrity Monitor — Compares your files against official WordPress checksums Vulnerability Scanner — Checks plugins and themes against known CVEs User Security Scanner — Finds suspicious admin accounts and weak credentials Content Safety Scanner — Detects malicious content injected into posts and comments Public Files Scanner — Finds exposed configuration files (wp-config backups, .env, debug logs) Server State Scanner — Audits PHP settings, file permissions, and server configuration Binary Scanner — Detects malware embedded in images and executables Domain Reputation Scanner — Checks URLs against Google Safe Browsing and threat databases Advanced detection goes beyond traditional malware scanners by using multiple analysis layers to identify both known and unknown threats. Obfuscation analysis detects encoded and hidden malware that basic security plugins often miss, while behavior analysis identifies suspicious file activity and unusual patterns that may indicate new or evolving attacks. A built-in legitimacy assessment helps reduce false positives, ensuring more accurate and reliable malware detection. You can choose from quick scan, standard scan, high sensitivity scan, or fully custom scan modes based on your website security needs. This system is designed for complete WordPress malware removal, vulnerability detection, and full website protection, all running directly on your server without relying on external scanning services. 🌍 Country Blocking & IP Management Block entire countries or fine-tune access with advanced pattern rules. Strengthen your WordPress security by controlling who can access your site based on location, IP address, and request behavior, helping prevent brute force attacks, spam traffic, and malicious bot activity. Geo-Blocking — Block any country, login-only or full site access IP Blocking — Block individual IPs or IP ranges, temporary or permanent Custom Patterns — Block by hostname, user agent, referrer, or IP range with wildcard and regex support Attack Analytics — See which countries attack you most with visual reports Allowlist — Whitelist trusted IPs and services to bypass all blocks GeoIP Integration — Automatic IP-to-country lookup with auto-updating database 🛡️ Brute Force Protection & Rate Limiting Stop password guessing and resource exhaustion attacks. Strengthen your WordPress login security with advanced brute force protection, rate limiting, and bot blocking to prevent unauthorized access, credential stuffing, and automated attacks. Smart Login Limiting — Lock out IPs after too many failed login attempts Leaked Password Detection — Check passwords against known breach databases Strong Password Enforcement — Require secure passwords for all user roles Username Blacklist — Block common attack usernames instantly Rate Limiting — Cap requests per IP to stop scrapers and vulnerability scanners Human vs Bot Detection — Smart traffic classification with 404 monitoring 🔐 Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Even if someone steals your password, they can’t get in. Add an extra layer of WordPress login security with secure two-factor authentication to prevent unauthorized access, account takeovers, and brute force login attacks. QR Code Setup — Works with Google Authenticator, Authy, 1Password, and more Backup Codes — Never get locked out of your own site Role Enforcement — Require 2FA for admins or specific user roles Frontend Management — Users manage their own 2FA via shortcode WooCommerce & XML-RPC — Covers your store and API endpoints 📊 Dashboard, Monitoring & Tools Set it up in 5 minutes. Go deep when you want to. Manage your WordPress security dashboard with real-time monitoring, detailed audit logs, and advanced security tools to track threats, analyze activity, and take instant action. Security Status — Green, yellow, or red — know your protection level at a glance Live Traffic View — Watch visitors and attacks in real-time with human vs. bot classification Complete Audit Log — Every security event tracked with timestamps and IP intelligence Scheduled Scans — Daily, weekly, or custom scan schedules One-Click Actions — Block IPs, ignore false positives, repair infected files Diagnostics — 15+ system health checks for troubleshooting Settings Export/Import — Backup and migrate security configuration between sites Multi-Site Sync — Manage security across multiple WordPress sites from one place 🔒 Privacy-First Security All scanning happens on YOUR server. Period. Protect your WordPress website security and data privacy with local malware scanning and firewall processing, ensuring your files, database, and user data never leave your hosting environment. What We DON’T Do: ❌ We don’t send your file content or database data to external servers ❌ We don’t track your users ❌ We don’t collect analytics about your site ❌ We don’t send data without your knowledge 🚀 Premium Features (Upgrade for Advanced Protection) Unlock advanced WordPress security, firewall protection, and malware detection with powerful premium features designed for complete website protection: * Real-Time Firewall Rules – Get instant protection with continuously updated WAF rules (no delays) * Real-Time Malware Signatures – Detect the latest threats with up-to-date malware intelligence * Advanced Malware Detection – Enhanced scanning for hidden, obfuscated, and zero-day threats * Full Audit Log – Complete security event history with extended tracking and detailed insights * Country Blocking (GeoIP) – Block traffic by country for better control and attack prevention * Advanced Analytics & Reporting – Deeper insights into attacks, traffic patterns, and security events * Priority Support – Faster assistance from our security team * Off-Site Audit Log Sync – Tamper-proof off-site logging via VMP Security Portal * Continuous Updates & New Features – Stay protected with the latest security improvements External Services (Optional): We use external services only when necessary for specific security features. You can see exactly what’s sent: VMP Security Servers * License activation and validation (free/premium) * WAF rules synchronization and updates * Malware signature database updates * Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) system management * Settings export/import cloud storage (optional) * Privacy: Your site data remains on your server — only configuration and security rules are synced Google Services (safebrowsing.googleapis.com, www.google.com/recaptcha) * URL threat detection and reCAPTCHA spam protection * Privacy: https://policies.google.com/privacy WordPress.org APIs (api.wordpress.org, downloads.wordpress.org, core.svn.wordpress.org) * Download original files for integrity checking during malware scans * Privacy: https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/ GitHub (raw.githubusercontent.com) * Download WordPress core files for file comparison IP Lookup Services (api.ipify.org, ifconfig.me, icanhazip.com, ip-api.com, ipwhois.app, download.ip2location.com) * Server IP detection, geolocation, and country blocking features Threat Intelligence (api.urlvoid.com, www.virustotal.com, checkurl.phishtank.com) * URL reputation checking and threat validation Vulnerability Databases (services.nvd.nist.gov, wpscan.com, cvedetails.com, cve.mitre.org) * Check for known security vulnerabilities during scans All malware scanning happens on YOUR server. We do not upload your files or database content to external services.