Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection vs WP EXtra – One Click Optimize

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.

🚀 Boost your website’s performance, security, SEO and user experience with WP EXtra – the ultimate lightweight all-in-one toolkit for WordPress! WP EXtra is built from the ground up with a modular architecture: features run with zero frontend overhead via smart lazy-loading, and every option is centralized in a single autoloaded database setting. 🌟 14 CORE MODULES & POWER TOOLS 1. 📊 Dashboard Widgets Cleanup: Disable unnecessary WordPress core and third-party dashboard widgets with one click. System Info Cards: Real-time server diagnostics (PHP version, memory limits, MySQL, server software) rendered cleanly without external assets. Custom Admin Notice: Broadcast personalized announcements or instructions to specific user roles with custom alert styles. 2. ✍️ Posts & Writing Classic Editor Integration: Seamlessly switch between Gutenberg and the Classic Editor for posts and pages. Featured Image Column: View, set, or replace post featured thumbnails directly inside the admin post list. Extended TinyMCE Toolbar: Enhanced editor buttons including Table generator, Checklist, Visual Blocks, Letter-spacing, Text Case, Underline, and Clean HTML formatting. Category Description Editor: Rich WYSIWYG editor for category and taxonomy descriptions. Global Post Tags Control: Manage post tags with 3 modes: Default, Disable Tag Links on frontend (converts tag links to text badges and blocks tag archives to prevent thin-content indexing), or completely Disable Post Tags. Writing Aids: Post word counter, post ID columns in admin, and automatic revision cleanup. 3. 📑 Table of Contents Auto-Insertion: Automatically generate a structured Table of Contents for posts, pages, or custom post types. Headings Numbering: Customizable multi-level numbering hierarchy (1, 1.1, 1.1.1…) for H1-H6 tags. Sticky Floating Badge & Drawer: Off-canvas sliding TOC drawer triggered by a modern floating action button (FAB). SEO Schema: Native SiteNavigationElement JSON-LD structured data for Google rich snippets. 4. 📋 Clone Content (Duplicate) 1-Click Duplication: Duplicate posts, pages, and custom post types with all meta fields, taxonomies, and featured images. Taxonomy Duplication: Clone categories, tags, and custom taxonomy terms in bulk with chunked processing to prevent memory issues. 5. 🖼️ Media & SVG Secure SVG Uploads: Full support for SVG media files with built-in sanitization against malicious XML and XSS scripts. Auto Image Conversion: Automatically convert uploaded images to modern WebP or optimized JPG with customizable quality. SEO Image Renaming: Automatically clean and sanitize image filenames on upload (removes accents, spaces, and special characters). Auto Remote Image Downloader: Automatically save external images to the WordPress media library upon publishing. 6. 💬 Comments & Anti-Spam Global Comment Control: Disable comments site-wide or selectively by post type. Close Attachment Comments: Automatically prevent spam on image and media attachment URLs. Spam Link Filter: Block automated spam comments containing excessive links without requiring third-party captcha. 7. 🔐 Branding & Login Custom Login URL: Protect /wp-login.php by setting a custom login slug (e.g. /login or /member-login). Modern Login Presets: 5 curated visual themes (Classic Dark, Clean White, Gradient Blue, Glassmorphism, Warm Peach) with custom logo and background support. Cloudflare Turnstile Captcha: Seamless, privacy-friendly bot protection for login, registration, and lost password forms. Limit Login Attempts: IP-based temporary lockout to prevent brute-force attacks. Content Protection: Disable text selection, right-click context menu, and image dragging. 8. 🛡️ Permission & Roles Role-based Backend Lockdown: Restrict /wp-admin access by user role and redirect unauthorized users to the homepage. Hide Admin Bar: Automatically hide the WordPress admin toolbar on frontend for non-admin user roles. Menu Restrictions: Restrict access to specific admin sidebar menu items by user role. Hide Plugins: Hide sensitive plugins from the /wp-admin/plugins.php list table for non-super admins. Chunked Nav Menu Saver: Optimize saving large navigation menus with hundreds of items via sequential AJAX chunks to bypass PHP max_input_vars limits, with group collapse/expand controls. Disable Default Core Widgets: Unregister all default WordPress core widgets (Archives, Calendar, Categories, Meta, Recent Posts/Comments, RSS, Search, Tag Cloud, etc.) while keeping custom and theme widgets intact. 9. 🔒 Security & Core Hardening Disable XML-RPC & REST API: Block pingback spam, DDoS vectors, and lock down REST API endpoints for non-logged-in visitors. Hide WordPress Version: Remove generator meta tags and version query strings from HTML source. Block Author Enumeration: Stop bot scanners from discovering admin usernames via ?author=N and REST API user routes. HTTP Security Headers: Send modern security headers (X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy). Disable File Editors: Lock theme and plugin code editors in the admin area (DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT). Disable Core Auto-Updates: Maintain full control over WordPress core version upgrades. Block Outgoing HTTP Calls: Block external API calls to specific external domains to prevent timeouts. 10. ⚡ Speed & Optimize Asset Cleanups: Dequeue WordPress emojis, guest Dashicons, and default Gutenberg block CSS (~50KB). Remove Global Styles: Eliminate inline global-styles-inline-css and SVG duotone filters from page footers. Strip Query Strings: Remove ?ver= parameters from static CSS/JS files to maximize browser and CDN caching. Preconnect CDNs: Add preconnect resource hints for Google Fonts CDN to accelerate asset loading. 11. 🔗 Permalinks & SEO Remove Category Slugs: Strip /category/ or custom taxonomy base prefixes from URLs. Single Post Auto-Redirect: Automatically redirect category archives containing only 1 post directly to the article. Attachment Redirect: Redirect media attachment pages to the parent post or homepage to prevent thin-content SEO issues. External Link Optimization: Automatically append rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" and target="_blank" to outbound links with domain whitelisting (using fast native WP_HTML_Tag_Processor). Virtual Robots.txt Manager: Customize dynamic robots.txt rules directly within WordPress. 12. 💻 Custom Code & CSS Script Injection: Insert custom HTML, tracking tags, and JavaScript into , opening , and page footer. Responsive CSS: Add custom CSS rules with dedicated code editors for Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile devices with automatic minification. 13. 🍪 Cookie Consent GDPR/CCPA Compliance: Lightweight, customizable cookie consent banner for compliance with international privacy laws. Modern Design Presets: Choose between Classic Light, Dark Modern, Soft Warm, or custom color palettes. 100% Cache Compatible: Fully client-side JavaScript execution ensuring compatibility with WP Rocket, LiteSpeed, and full-page CDN caching. 14. ✉️ SMTP Mailer Multi-Account SMTP Rotation: Configure multiple SMTP accounts with daily quotas; automatically rotates when daily limits are reached. 1-Click Provider Presets: Pre-configured settings for Gmail, Mailgun, Outlook / Office 365, Yahoo Mail, Amazon SES, Zoho Mail, SendGrid, and Sendinblue (Brevo). Live AJAX Test Email: Interactive test sender with real-time response latency measurement and intelligent diagnostic troubleshooting. Email Delivery Logs: Searchable database log tracking recipients, subjects, sending mailer, status, and error traces. 🛠️ Directory & Server Tools .htaccess Directory Protection: Block direct PHP script execution inside wp-includes, wp-content/uploads, .env, .git, and sensitive configuration files. Encrypted JSON Backup & Restore: Export and import full plugin configuration safely with encrypted JSON files. Service Disclosures This plugin can optionally connect to the following third-party services: Cloudflare Turnstile: Service URL: https://challenges.cloudflare.com/turnstile/v0/api.js Service Provider: Cloudflare, Inc. Terms of Service: https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/ Privacy Policy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/ Purpose: Provides privacy-preserving CAPTCHA protection against automated bots on login, registration, and password recovery forms. This service is strictly optional and is only loaded when Cloudflare Turnstile keys are configured by the administrator in plugin settings.