Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal vs Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall

WP Ghost (formerly Hide My WP Ghost) is a professional, comprehensive hack-prevention security solution for WordPress. Built for speed and maximum defense, it provides a multi-layered security architecture to block hacker bots, neutralize automated scanners, and stop hacks before reconnaissance begins. While traditional security tools focus on Detection (scanning for malware after a breach) or Signature-Filtering (blocking known exploits), WP Ghost focuses on Architecture. By implementing Paths Security and Site Hardening, it removes digital footprints that make your site a target for automated botnets. This provides a proactive foundation that secures your site before it can be identified as a target. WP Ghost Global Stats: 10 Million+ Monthly Brute-Force Attempts Blocked 100 Million+ Monthly Security Threats Prevented Official websites: WP Ghost (wpghost.com) Hide My WP Ghost (hidemywpghost.com) Hide WordPress with Path Security and Reduce Your Attack Surface Hide WordPress paths that attackers commonly scan, including wp-admin, wp-login.php, wp-content, wp-includes, plugin paths and theme paths. Most WordPress attacks are automated. Bots scan millions of sites per hour looking for default paths like /wp-admin or /wp-login.php to confirm a site is running WordPress. Once confirmed, they launch targeted exploits against known plugin or theme vulnerabilities. WP Ghost breaks this cycle. By changing and securing common paths, you reduce your attack surface by up to 90%. This is not “obscurity”, it is Site Hardening. The visible structure of your site is re-engineered so it is no longer low-hanging fruit for global botnets. NEW: AI Security Explanations – Your Report, Explained for Your Website Every security plugin hands you a list of red warnings. Almost none of them tell you what those warnings mean for your website. WP Ghost now does. One click sends your findings for analysis based on your site’s actual configuration: server type, whether rewrite rules are active, if your config file is writable, and your security mode. It then returns a security report written specifically for you, not for WordPress in general. Requires a WP Ghost subscription, which includes a monthly allowance of AI checks. Everything else on the Security Check page – the scan, the score, the prioritised list, the severity bands and every task detail – is free and works on its own. What you get back: A plain-language summary of your whole website. One paragraph that finally answers “so, am I actually secure?” A headline you can understand. The technical task name is replaced with what is genuinely at stake. One clear action per finding. Not a description of the problem – an instruction telling you what to do. A security explanation on demand. Open Details on any finding and you get the reasoning: why it matters on your server, what an attacker would do with it, and why it was ranked where it was. This is the part that teaches you WordPress security instead of just flagging it. Priority based on real exposure. Findings are re-ranked using your actual configuration, so the item at the top is the one that genuinely puts you at risk – not the one that scores highest in a generic table. Built with limits you can check. Only your findings and a small description of your setup are ever sent – no page content, no user data, no credentials. Your security list, your score, the severity bands and every task detail are generated locally and keep working whether the AI is available or not. Read more about AI Security Explanations on wpghost.com NEW: Ghost Doctor – Finds and Repairs a Broken Site by Itself Changing your WordPress paths depends on your server honouring the new rules. When it doesn’t – Nginx never reads .htaccess, Apache ignores it without AllowOverride, a host locks the config file – your site can break, and nothing tells you why. Ghost Doctor diagnoses issues and repairs what a plugin can. It checks your homepage, theme files, editor requests, and REST API as a visitor would see them. Then it works through repairs from safest to most invasive. Every repair is tested immediately and undone automatically if it does not help, so no setting is changed unnecessarily. Anything requiring a server change is clearly named with a guide, avoiding guesswork. Read the Ghost Doctor troubleshooting guides Key Protections Included WP Ghost is packed with advanced defensive mechanisms to protect your site against: Brute Force Attacks: Blocks automated password guessing at the source. SQL Injection & XSS: Neutralizes malicious query strings and script injections. Zero-Day Exploits: Secures paths for plugins before patches are even released. XML-RPC & REST API Attacks: Shuts down common remote-access entry points. Bot Reconnaissance: Prevents “fingerprinting” that hackers use to map your site. Spam & Scrapers: Filters malicious traffic, saving bandwidth and server load. Over 115 Free Security Features Included We believe professional security should be accessible to everyone. The free version of WP Ghost includes a large suite of tools to harden your WordPress architecture. Change and Secure Paths (Paths Security) Change wp-admin & wp-login.php: Move your login to a unique URL and show a 404 error to intruders. Change Lost Password & Register URLs: Secure all authentication entry points. Change wp-content & wp-includes: Secure your core system folders from direct access. Anonymize Plugins & Themes: Change visible plugin/theme paths so hackers can’t identify your software version. Secure admin-ajax.php & REST API: Change the /wp-json path to prevent data scraping. Security Presets: One-click activation with three preset levels from minimal to full protection including Firewall, Brute Force, Logs, and 2FA. Frontend Test: Verify your site loads correctly after changing paths before confirming settings. Custom Redirects: Set unique login/logout redirects based on user roles. Login Page Designer: Customize your secured login page with your logo, colors, background, and 10 color schemes. WordPress Firewall Protection & WordPress Login Security 8G & 7G Firewall Filters: High-speed, lightweight server-edge filtering to block bad bots. Passkey Authentication (Passwordless 2FA): Use Face ID, Touch ID, or Windows Hello for un-phishable, device-based logins. Standard 2FA (Code & Email): Add an extra verification layer to all user accounts. Security Headers: Automatically implement CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and more. IP & User Agent Blocking: Manually blacklist suspicious traffic or referrers. Security Threats Log: Track blocked attacks and malicious requests directly in your dashboard (limited view). User Events Log: Monitor login activity, role changes, and user actions (limited view). GEO Threats Map: Visualize where attacks originate with an interactive world map showing the top 5 threat countries. Security Optimization Score: Real-time 0-100 score showing exactly how hardened your site is, with actionable recommendations. Temporary Logins: Create time-limited access links for developers and clients without sharing passwords. Deep Hiding & Footprint Removal Scrub Meta Tags: Remove WordPress version numbers and generator tags. Clean HTML Comments: Strip identifiable comments that reveal your tech stack. Hide Admin Toolbar: Remove the toolbar for specific roles to hide backend indicators. Disable Emoticons & RSD: Remove unnecessary header links that bloat code and reveal info. Advanced Disable Options Disable XML-RPC: Shut down the most common vector for DDoS and brute force. Disable REST API Access: Restrict API access to authenticated users only. Frontend Lockdown: Disable right-click, “View Source,” and text selection to prevent manual reconnaissance. Disable Directory Browsing: Ensure your server folders are never visible to the public. Brute Force Protection Integrated ReCaptcha: Supports Google V2, V3, Enterprise, and Math ReCaptcha. Targeted Protection: Enable brute force defense on Login, Signup, and WooCommerce pages. Custom Throttling: Define your own lockout times and attempt limits. Extra Tools & Integrations Magic Links: Log in securely without a password via a one-time email link. Text & URL Mapping: Change any class name or URL in your source code dynamically. CDN & Cache Support: Works perfectly with WP Rocket, Cloudflare, and Litespeed. Ghost Doctor: Diagnoses why your paths stopped working and repairs what it can. It tests every repair and undoes anything that does not help. Prioritized Security Check: Failing paths and failed hardening tasks appear as one list, worst first, with time-based bands such as “worth fixing this week” instead of separate tables to reconcile. AI Security Explanations: Get every finding explained for your website and ranked by real exposure. Requires a connected WP Ghost account with an active subscription; a monthly allowance applies. Learn more. Premium Hack-Prevention Features For agencies and high-traffic sites, WP Ghost Premium adds advanced features focused on Security Intelligence, Automated Response, and Copyright Protection. AI Security Explanations: Your findings explained for your own website and re-ranked by what actually exposes you, with a monthly allowance of AI checks included in your subscription. Read more. Ghost Mode: Maximum security preset, changes all paths, hides all file extensions, and enables all hiding options in one click. IP Block Automation: Automatically block IP addresses that trigger repeated security threats. AI Copyright Protection: Block 30+ AI training crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and others) at the firewall level. List auto-updated with each release. Does not affect Google, Bing, or regular search visibility. Full Security Threats Log: Unlimited entries with filters by threat type, status, country, and time range, full-text search, pagination, and CSV export. Full User Events Log: Unlimited entries with filters, search, pagination, and CSV export. Cloud Event Storage: 30-day cloud retention for audits and incident reports. Real-time Email Alerts: Get notified instantly of brute-force attempts or suspicious activity. Geo-Security (Country Blocking): Block entire countries or specific paths by country. Advanced File Hardening: Hide file extensions (PHP, CSS, JS, JSON), secure wp-config.php, php.ini, and debug.log. Database & Server Hardening: Fix file permissions, change database prefix, regenerate SALT keys. Priority Support: Direct access to our security experts and founder-led assistance. Hide My WP Premium Feature Technical Compatibility WP Ghost is engineered for the modern WordPress ecosystem: Hosting Support: Optimized for WP Engine, Inmotion Hosting, Hostgator Hosting, Godaddy Hosting, Host1plus, Payperhost, Fastcomet, Dreamhost, Bitnami Apache, Bitnami Nginx, Google Cloud Hosting, Amazon AWS Lightsail, Litespeed Hosting, Flywheels Hosting, Kinsta Hosting, Ploi.io, CloudPanel, RunCloud, Rocket Domain, Yunohost. Server Support: Fully compatible with Nginx, Apache, LiteSpeed, and IIS. Plugin Support: Seamless integration with Woocommerce, WPML, WPMUDEV, W3 Total Cache, Gravity, WP Super Cache, WP Fastest Cache, Hummingbird Cache, Cachify Cache, Litespeed Cache, SiteGround Optimizer, Nitropack, Cache Enabler, CDN Enabler, WOT Cache, Autoptimize, Jetpack by WordPress, Contact Form 7, bbPress, Manage WP, All In One SEO, Rank Math, Yoast SEO, Squirrly SEO, WP-Rocket, Minify HTML, Solid Security, Sucuri Security, Really Simple SSL, WordFence Security, WP Cerber Security, BBQ Firewall, Anti-Malware Security, Back-Up WordPress, Elementor Page Builder, Divi Builder, Weglot Translate, AddToAny Share Btn, Limit Login Attempts Reloaded, Loginizer, Shield Security, Asset CleanUp, WP Hide & Security Enhancer, and more. Stop the hack before it starts. Join over 100,000 users who trust WP Ghost to secure their digital presence.

Brute force, Login security & Two Factor Auth (2FA). Limit login. Malware & Vulnerabilities scan. FireWall. Enterprise ready security plugin. SECURITY PLUGIN BY CLEANTALK (SPBCT) We focus on eliminating the most common security threats for WordPress. At the same time, we strive to ensure that site performance remains unaffected. To achieve this, each release goes through automated and expert-driven testing pipelines. We also verify performance using Google PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix. Typically, we release a new version twice a month to keep features up to date and protection strong. SECURITY FEATURES Limit Login Attempts and rate limits for logins. Two Factor Authentication (2FA) Custom wp-login URL (wp-login.php) Hide Login Default Login Page Disable or Stop User Enumeration Brute force protection for WordPress accounts and passwords Security Protection for WordPress login form Security FireWall by IP, Networks, or Countries Web Application Firewall (WAF) Real-time traffic monitor (Visitors per pages, IPs, Countires and hits counts per page) Malware scanner with auto-cure function Daily auto malware scan Vulnerabilities scanner among installed plugins and themes Security weekly reports to email Notifications of login events to your website FREE TRIAL THEN $9 PER YEAR CleanTalk is a Cloud security service that protects your website from online threats and provides you great security instruments to control your website security. We provide detailed security stats for all of our security features to have a full control of security. We believe the most honest approach is when every user pays a small fee for using the service, rather than relying on a freemium model where some users subsidize others. The fee is as low as price of a good cup of coffee! So, the security plugin does not have a PRO version-it is completely free and works in combination with our premium Cloud security service at cleantalk.org. Every user has full access to all features of both the service and the plugin. Also, please take a note about WordPress.org policy BRUTE FORCE PROTECTION Our default anti–brute-force policy works as follows, For any failed login attempt to the WordPress admin area, the plugin introduces a brief delay of a few seconds. The plugin reviews the security audit log every hour. If any IP address records 10 or more login attempts in that period, it will be blocked for 24 hours. ALL BRUTE FORCE PROTECTION FUNCTIONS Maximum failed attemtps to login before ban (default is 5). A failed attempt happens when either the login or password is incorrect. Time frame to count login attempts (default is 15 minutes). Ban to login time frame from 2 minutes to 24 hours (default is 1 hour). Two-factor authentication (2FA) with abillity to apply policy to specific users roles. Prevent collecting of login on password reset error. The option exclude the info about the login existing on password change error. Error message will be replaced with followed text: “If the user with the specified credentials exists, check your email for the password reset confirmation link. Then visit login page.” Security Audit Log. Keeps track of actions in the WP Dashboard to let you know what is happening on your blog. With the Security Audit Log is very easy to see user activity in order to understand what changes have done and who made them. Security Audit Log shows who logged in and when and how much time they spent on each page. Two Factor Authentication (2FA). It requires a bit of your time but Two Factor (2 Step) Authentication immediately gives a much higher level of security.With your first authorization, the CleanTalk Security plugin remembers your browser and you won’t have to input your authorization code every time anymore. However, if you started to use a new device or a new browser then you are required to input your security authorization code. CleanTalk security plugin will remember your browser for 30 days. Change the URL of the wp-login page. This option helps you change the default wp-login URL (wp-login.php). Hackers use scripts for massive brute-force attacks, and since most sites use a default login page URL, hackers configure scripts for such URLs. When you change the URL of the authorization page, hackers will not have the opportunity to perform brute-force attacks in scripts in automatic mode. This option does not change files and does not rewrite URLs in system files. To return the address of the default authorization page, it is enough to disable the option in the plugin settings or set a new value. If you are using caching plugins, then you need to add a new authorization page in the caching exceptions. Leaked password check. This feature enhances your website’s security by continuously monitoring users’ passwords for potential exposure in known data breaches and on the dark web. It works in the background and requires no action from users unless a leak is detected. SECURITY FIREWALL To enhance the security of your site, you can use the CleanTalk Security FireWall, which will allow you to block access by HTTP/HTTPS to your website for individual IP addresses, IP networks and block access to users from specific countries. Use personal BlackList to block IP addresses with a suspicious activity to enhance the WordPress security. Security FireWall may significantly reduce the risk of hacking and reduces the load on your web server. CleanTalk Security is fully compatible with the most popular VPN services. Also, CleanTalk security supports all search engines Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, MSN, Yandex, and etc. LIST OF FIREWALL FUNCTIONS Blocks or bypass visitors by IP, IP Network. Country blocking. It also has option to avoid blocking hits from major search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, Yandex, and etc. Traffic control. CleanTalk security Traffic Control will track every single visitor no matter if they are using JavaScript or not and provides many valuable traffic parameters. Another option in Security Traffic Control – “Block user after requests amounts more than” – blocks access to the site for any IP that has exceeded the number of HTTP requests per hour. If this number of requests will be exceeded, this IP will be added to the Security FireWall Black List for 24 hours. Security Firewall has a limit for requests to your website (by default 1000 requests per hour, so you can change it) and if any IP exceed this threshold it will be added to security firewall for next 24 hours. It allows you to break some of the DDoS attacks. Limit Login Attempts. Limit Login Attempts – is a part of brute-force protection and security firewall. Web Application FireWall (WAF) for WordPress Security Plugin. The main purpose of Web Application FireWall (WAF) is real-time protection from unauthorized access, even if there are critical known/unknown vulnerabilities. Security Web Application FireWall catches all requests to your website and checks HTTP parameters that include, SQL Injection, Cross Site Scripting (XSS), uploading files from non-authorised users, PHP constructions/code, the presence of malicious code in the downloaded files. In addition to effective information security and information security applications are required to know what is quality of protection and CleanTalk Security has logged all blocked requests that allow you to know and analyze accurate information. You can see your Cleantalk Security Logs in your Dashboard CleanTalk’s research team updates WAF database each time as we find a vulnerability, it means plugin’s users get protection even against unpublished vulnurebilites. Learn more how to set up and test About Security Web Application Firewall Email Notifications when administrators or users are logged in. We added this option to our security plugin. Now you can receive notifications if you want to know about an unauthorized entrance to your WP Dashboard. Notification will be sent only when a user was able to authorize entering login and password. If you are logged into the admin panel from the saved session, then the alert won’t be sent. MALWARE SCANNER WITH AUTO-CURE FUNCTION Scans WordPress files for hacker files or code for hacker code. Performs antivirus functions. Security Malware Scanner runs manually by users requests or automaticaly by WordPress cron. All of the results will send in your Security CleanTalk Dashboard with the details and you will be able to investigate them and see if that was a legitimate change or some bad code was injected. If you are unsure how to identify, remove, or clean malware using the plugin, you can book a malware removal service with our Security & Pentest team. As an alternative, you can use the Website Malware Scanner for frontend security and malware checks. It scans by URL and requires no plugins. LIST OF MALWARE SCANNER, ANTIVIRUS FUNCTIONS Malware autoscanning. Scans the website automatically at intervals ranging from once every 12 hours to once every 30 days. Cure malware. It cures infected files automatically if the scanner knows cure methods for these specific cases. If the option is disabled then when the scanning process ends you will be presented with several actions you can do to the found files, Cure. Malicious code will be removed from the file. Replace. The file will be replaced with the original file. Delete. The file will be put in quarantine. Do nothing. Before any action is chosen, backups of the files will be created and if the cure is unsuccessful it’s possible to restore each file. Security Malware Heuristic Check. This option allows you to check files of plugins and themes with heuristic analysis. Probably it will find more than you expect. Security Malware scanner to find SQL Injections. The CleanTalk Security Malware Scanner allows you to find code that allows performing SQL injection. It is this problem that the scanner solves. Operating system cron tasks analysis. This functional provides an overview of scheduled cron jobs on server that perform automated tasks. DB Trigger analysis. Will search for known malicious signatures in database triggers. List unknown files. Shows the list of found unknown files in the malware scanner report. Unknown files do not have known virus signatures and do not have suspicious code. Meanwhile, unknown files do not belong to the public plugins and themes at wordpress.org. File System Watcher. File system Watcher monitors changes in the file system. This allows to quickly respond to a site infection by tracking which files were affected. The Watcher makes file system snapshots as often as one hour and show difference up to seven days time frame. Feedback System. If you don’t have programming experience and don’t know, is there security issue or not, you send some files to CleanTalk Cloud and we check them for malware code. After checking we send you an email notification with results, is there viruses or not. Please, look at our guide How malware file analysis works About Scanner Feedback System LIST OF THE MOST ACTIVE MALWARES BY FILENAMES radio.php admin-ajax.php .1235512.css 8sjdakSJ3.php wso.php cmd.php shell.php reverse_shell.php admin.php The list is actual on July 15th, 2025. The latest data is the article Is my site infected? VULNERABILITIES SCANNER AMONG INSTALLED PLUGINS AND THEMES Plugin checks installed plugins and themes for known (published) vulnerabilities. If finds vulnerable plugin/theme, it sends an Email notification and shows data in the Critical updates tab. List of the most recent vulnerabilities found and published by CleanTalk Research team, CVE-2025-5921 – SureForms – Unauthenticated XSS – POC, 200k+ installs. CVE-2025-3582 – Newsletter – Stored XSS to JS Backdoor Creation – POC, 300k+ installs. CVE-2025-2560 – Ninja Forms – Stored XSS to JS Backdoor Creation – POC, 700k+ installs. The list is effective on July 18th, 2025. Updates are avaible on https://research.cleantalk.org/. MISCELLANEOUS SECURITY OPTIONS Send additional HTTP headers option. There are several additional http-headers which added to the every http-requests by the plugin if this option is enabled: “X-Content-Type-Options” improves the security of your site (and your users) against some types of drive-by-downloads. “X-XSS-Protection” header improves the security of your site against some types of XSS (cross-site scripting) attacks. “Strict-Transport-Security” response header (often abbreviated as HSTS) informs browsers that the site should only be accessed using HTTPS, and that any future attempts to access it using HTTP should automatically be converted to HTTPS. “Referrer-Policy” make the Referer http-header transferring more strictly. Collect and send PHP logs. Collect and send PHP error logs to your CleanTalk Dashboard where you can list them. Prevent collecting of authors logins. Prevent visitors from collecting logins of the content authors from the website links (like example.com/?author=1). Also this function known as Stop User Enumeration. Prevent collecting of user login on password reset. The password reset error will not contain the data about selected username does not exist. Disable REST API for non-authenticated users. Turn this on to deny access to WordPress REST API for non-authenticated users. Denied requests will get a 401 HTTP Code (Unauthorized). Disable the WordPress endpoint “users” REST API. Disables access to /wp-json/wp/v2/users and /wp-json/wp/v2/users/”id_user”. Disable File Editor. By prohibiting file editing, you protect the site from malicious attacks that may try to change the code and gain access to the site or steal confidential information. TRANSLATE INTO YOUR LANGUAGE Thank you for helping translate the plugin! 感谢您帮助翻译这个插件！ (Gǎnxiè nín bāngzhù fānyì zhège chājìan!) प्लगइन का अनुवाद करने में मदद के लिए धन्यवाद! (Plugin ka anuvaad karne mein madad ke liye dhanyavaad!) ¡Gracias por ayudar a traducir el complemento! Merci d’avoir aidé à traduire le plugin ! شكرًا لمساعدتك في ترجمة الإضافة! (Shukran limusaa’adatika fi tarjamat al-idafa!) প্লাগইন অনুবাদে সাহায্য করার জন্য ধন্যবাদ! (Plug-in onubade shahajjo korar jonno dhonnobad!) Спасибо за помощь в переводе плагина! (Spasibo za pomoshch v perevode plagina!) Obrigado por ajudar a traduzir o plugin! (Obrigada if female) پلگ ان کا ترجمہ کرنے میں مدد کرنے کا شکریہ! (Plug-in ka tarjuma karne mein madad karne ka shukriya!) Terima kasih telah membantu menerjemahkan plugin! Danke, dass du beim Übersetzen des Plugins geholfen hast! プラグインの翻訳を手伝ってくれてありがとうございます！ (Puraguin no hon’yaku o tetsudatte kurete arigatou gozaimasu!) https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/security-malware-firewall/