SAR One Click Security vs Watchdog Security Lite

Watchdog Security Lite is the free WordPress security edition powered by the Lumiverse Nexus ecosystem. It brings together active request protection, local malware scanning, vulnerability intelligence, official-file integrity checks, login protection and WooCommerce-aware controls in one security-focused dashboard. Watchdog Lite is designed to provide useful protection without turning every unusual request into an attack claim. Detection, observation and enforcement are kept distinct wherever possible so site owners can understand what the plugin actually saw and what it actually restricted. Core security features Traffic Shield Lite – conservative request-abuse protection for suspicious scanning, repeated hostile traffic and selected XML-RPC pressure. Login Guard – login abuse protection with lockout controls designed to avoid treating ordinary mistakes as attacks. Malware Scanner – local PHP/file scanning with high-confidence signatures, changed-file-first routine scanning and MU-plugin coverage. Vulnerability Watch Lite – checks installed WordPress, plugin and theme versions against Nexus vulnerability intelligence and provides severity plus update guidance. Official File Integrity – compares WordPress core and supported WordPress.org components with official checksums or packages. Safe Core Repair – manually restores verified modified or missing WordPress core files after creating a protected restore point. Optional administrator TOTP 2FA – authenticator-app protection and one-time recovery codes, configured separately by each administrator. Security Incident Inbox – groups related security activity into readable incidents. Site Change Watch Lite – records important administrator, plugin, theme and risky file changes. WP-Cron persistence checks – highlights high-confidence suspicious scheduled-task patterns and risky combinations. Watchdog Live Pulse – a real-data visual view of recent traffic, bots and protection activity. It does not invent attack events. Weekly Security Digest – optional once-weekly email summarizing protection activity, scan coverage and important security health signals. Nexus Threat Network Lite – optional shared threat intelligence with selected high-confidence signal contribution and privacy-preserving aggregate security telemetry. WooCommerce-aware protection WooCommerce stores receive cart, wishlist, catalog, checkout, AJAX and crawler traffic that should not all be treated as ordinary page requests. Watchdog Lite includes WooCommerce Bot Cart Guard Lite. When enabled, crawler-claimed and obvious automation may still access public pages while supported cart, wishlist or remove-item mutations are neutralized before they create unwanted shopping state. Normal shoppers, logged-in users and ordinary browser traffic are not handled by this crawler/automation rule. For business sites and stores that need earlier request containment, advanced WooCommerce resource protection, deeper incident investigation, richer Threat Network intelligence and recovery workflows, see Lumiverse Nexus PRO. Optional TOTP two-factor authentication TOTP 2FA is optional and configured separately by each administrator. It protects the standard WordPress administrator login; API, XML-RPC and application-password authentication remain separate controls. Watchdog Lite does not force 2FA after installation, after an update or when Recommended Local Protection is applied. The feature works with standard time-based authenticator applications, stores the secret locally and provides one-time recovery codes. Administrators should keep recovery codes in a secure location. Nexus Threat Network Lite Nexus Threat Network Lite is disabled by default. When an administrator enables Threat Intelligence Lite, the site joins the Nexus Threat Network participation model. While enabled, the site can: receive compact shared threat intelligence; contribute selected, high-confidence security signals used to strengthen network intelligence. Selected verified security signals are a separate part of Threat Network participation and may include the attacking public IP address together with limited security metadata such as event type, rule reference, confidence, request category, aggregated observation count, plugin version and a pseudonymous contributor credential. Disabling Threat Intelligence Lite stops Threat Network participation and discards unsent aggregate telemetry. Confirmed-match blocking remains a separate protection choice. Learn more at Nexus Threat Network. Lite and Nexus PRO Watchdog Security Lite provides practical security foundations for WordPress sites and WooCommerce stores. Lumiverse Nexus PRO adds the broader protection and investigation platform, including Early WAF / pre-WordPress protection, advanced WooCommerce resource defense, deeper Threat Network classifications, Security Twin, Threat Constellation, Incident Replay, Threat Continuum and Rescue Center workflows. Learn more at Lumiverse Nexus PRO. External Services Watchdog Security Lite performs routine malware/file scanning locally. Website files and file contents are not uploaded for routine malware scanning. Lumiverse Nexus services Watchdog Lite may communicate with services under: lumiversenexus.com These services provide malware-signature updates, vulnerability intelligence and Nexus Threat Network functions. Signature and vulnerability intelligence: requests may include normal HTTPS connection information and the public component information needed to retrieve the relevant intelligence. Installed component versions are evaluated locally. Website files, page content, usernames, passwords, customer data and order data are not uploaded for these checks. Threat Network participation: While enabled, selected high-confidence verified security signals may include an attacking public IP address plus limited security metadata such as event type, rule reference, confidence, request category, aggregated observation count, plugin version and a pseudonymous contributor credential. Threat Network registration does not require a customer name, email address, WordPress username, license key or site URL. Service information: Lumiverse Nexus Privacy Notice and Terms of Service.

There’s a lot of WordPress security plugins with many many options and pages to setup. And that is fine if you know what to do. But most of the times, you don’t need so much or simply you’re not sure about what to set or not. This plugin adds some extra security to your WordPress with only one click. No options page, just activate it! Features Like many other security plugins SAR One Click Security adds well known .htaccess rules, but only the ones probed to be safe to use in almost any type of site (including WooCommerce stores), to protect your WordPress from common attacks. This allows you to have a safer WordPress without worries about what protection you should be using. Turn off ServerSignature directive, that may leak information about your web server. Turn off directory listing, avoiding bad configured hostings to leak your files. Blocks public access (from web) to following files that may leak information about your WordPress install: .htaccess, license.txt, readme.html, wp-config.php, wp-config-sample.php, install.php Blocks access to wp-login.php to dummy bots trying to register in WordPress sites that have registration disabled. Blocks requests looking for timthumb.php, reducing server load caused by bots trying to find it. (*) Blocks TRACE and TRACK request methods, preventing XST attacks. Blocks direct posting to wp-comments-post.php (most spammers do this) and access with blank User Agent, reducing spam comments a lot and also server load. Blocks direct access to PHP files in wp-content directory (this includes subdirectories like plugins or themes). Protecting you from a huge number of 0day exploits. Blocks direct POST to wp-login.php and access with blank User Agent, preventing most brute-force attacks and reducing server load. Blocks access to .txt files under any plugin/theme directory to prevent scans for installed plugins/themes. Blocks any query string trying to get a copy of the wp-config.php file. Blocks gf_page=upload query string argument, this was deprecated in Gravity Forms on May 2015, if your copy of Gravity Forms still uses it, update now! Removes version information from page headers. This includes not only the page header (html or xhtml) but also feed headers (rss, rss2, atom, rdf) and opml comments. Only the version number is removed, not the entire generator information. (*) If your theme uses TimThumb, you can disable that blocking rule, check FAQ before installing the plugin to see how. Requirements WordPress 3.9.2 or higher. (Works with WordPress network/multisite installation). Apache 2.4.x web server It has been tested in many servers including large providers like HostGator, Godaddy and 1&1 with optimal results, and it will work fine in any decent hosting service (that allows you to set options from .htaccess files). Anyway, if you get any problem after activating the plugin, check FAQ for instructions on how to manually uninstall it. If you’re not sure of which server is your hosting company using or if they allow to use custom .htaccess rules, I would recommend you to contact with your host support before installing the plugin. Usage To apply above mentioned security rules simply install and activate the plugin, no options page, no user setup! If you need to remove the security rules for some reason, simply deactivate the plugin. If you want to add them again, activate the plugin again, that easy 😉 And remember, if your theme uses TimThumb, check FAQ before installing the plugin.