Watchdog Security Lite vs SiteFort Security – Malware Scanner, Firewall, Login Security & Hardening

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.

SiteFort is a prevention-first WordPress security plugin that combines security hardening, firewall and bot protection, login security and 2FA, vulnerability scanning, and malware detection in one protection layer. It blocks common attack paths early, before they turn into compromises, while supported firewall rules can sync to Cloudflare for enforcement at the edge. SiteFort’s cloud-assisted malware scanner verifies trusted files by hash and sends only unknown or suspicious files for deep threat analysis, keeping scans reliable even on shared and lower-resource hosting. Security hardening, firewall protection, login security, 2FA, and vulnerability scanning are free forever. Try the Live Demo | Features | Try Online Scanner Core WordPress Security Features WordPress Security Hardening: Reduces common exposure through XML-RPC, user enumeration, sensitive files, direct PHP execution, REST access, security headers, and other WordPress security controls. Firewall & Bot Protection: Blocks vulnerability probes, abusive requests, malicious traffic, and unwanted automation with IP, country, rate limiting, and configurable bot controls. Supported rules can also sync to Cloudflare for edge enforcement. Login Security & 2FA: Protects WordPress login, WooCommerce customer accounts, and membership account access with two-factor authentication, CAPTCHA, brute-force lockouts, a custom login URL, breached-password checks, and password policies. Vulnerability Scanner: Checks WordPress core, plugins, and themes for known vulnerabilities, affected versions, severity, CVE references where available, and remediation guidance. Cloud-Assisted Malware Scanner: Detects backdoors, web shells, injected code, malicious redirects, SEO spam, and suspicious file changes, with deep threat analysis in the cloud to reduce server load. Compromise & Reputation Checks: Detects suspicious administrator accounts, injected content, unsafe URLs, exposed sensitive files, malicious redirects, and domain or server reputation issues. WordPress Security Hardening SiteFort provides simple, toggle-based WordPress hardening controls to reduce common security exposure and shrink the attack surface. Sensitive File Protection: Blocks public access to WordPress configuration backups, database dumps, debug logs, backup files, installer files, and other sensitive resources, including exposed .env or .git data when present. PHP Execution Protection: Blocks PHP execution in uploads and restricts direct access to PHP files in plugin and theme directories. XML-RPC Controls: Disable XML-RPC, restrict authentication, or block pingback abuse. User Enumeration Blocking: Reduces username exposure through author archives, REST endpoints, and common discovery paths. REST & Application Password Controls: Restricts REST API access and controls WordPress Application Passwords based on site requirements. File Editor Protection: Disables the built-in WordPress theme and plugin file editor. Directory Browsing Protection: Disables directory listing to reduce file discovery and unintended information exposure. Security Headers: Analyze and manage CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy, and disclosure headers. Version & Metadata Cleanup: Reduces exposed WordPress version, generator, and header information. Protection Verification: Confirms supported hardening protections are active and identifies items that require manual hosting or server configuration. WordPress Malware Scanner SiteFort combines hash-first file verification with cloud-assisted deep threat analysis to detect malware while reducing scan workload on the WordPress server. Hash-First File Verification: Known WordPress core, plugin, and theme files are verified against trusted hashes. Deep Threat Analysis: Files that cannot be verified by hash or show suspicious indicators are sent to the SiteFort cloud for deep threat analysis, including backdoors, web shells, injected PHP or JavaScript, malicious redirects, SEO spam, and obfuscated code. File Integrity: Detects modified WordPress core, plugin, and theme files, along with unexpected files that do not belong in trusted packages. Account & Content Checks: Checks administrator accounts, WordPress content, options, URLs, and redirects for suspicious changes and indicators of compromise. Sensitive File Exposure: Identifies publicly accessible backups, logs, configuration files, debug files, and other sensitive files commonly targeted by attackers. Domain & IP Reputation: Checks the site domain and server IP against supported blocklists and abuse intelligence. Database and content checks run on the protected site and are not uploaded to the SiteFort cloud. Login Security & 2FA SiteFort protects WordPress login and account access against brute-force attacks, credential abuse, and unauthorized access. Brute-Force & CAPTCHA Protection: Limits repeated login attempts and adds CAPTCHA protection to WordPress, WooCommerce, and supported custom login and registration forms. Two-Factor Authentication: Adds role-based 2FA with authenticator apps, email codes, recovery codes, grace periods, and trusted devices. WooCommerce & Membership 2FA: Lets customers and members manage 2FA from WooCommerce My Account or supported custom account pages. Custom Login URL: Move the WordPress login page to a private URL and control requests to the default wp-login.php address. Password Security: Detects weak and breached passwords, enforces password strength, prevents reuse, and supports optional expiration policies. WordPress Firewall SiteFort filters malicious and abusive traffic early, with clear controls for IPs, countries, rate limits, sensitive paths, bots, and optional Cloudflare edge enforcement. IP, CIDR & Country Rules: Block or allow individual IP addresses, CIDR ranges, and countries, including an allow-only mode. Sensitive Path Probe Protection: Blocks requests probing for commonly targeted sensitive paths, including WordPress configuration backups, database dumps, debug logs, installer files, .env, and .git. Rate Limiting & 404 Controls: Reduces abusive request bursts, repeated missing-page requests, and automated scanning activity. Bot & User-Agent Controls: Block or allow selected bots, crawlers, scanners, and user agents with configurable firewall rules. Community Threat Intelligence: Blocks known malicious IPs identified across the SiteFort network, helping stop repeat bad actors before they reach the site. Vulnerability Probe Protection: Blocks automated requests searching for vulnerable plugins, themes, backup files, and configuration leaks. Cloudflare Sync: Synchronizes supported IP, country, and user-agent rules to Cloudflare, with temporary edge blocks for repeat attackers where supported. Traffic Log: Review firewall traffic, blocked requests, bot activity, rate-limit events, and rule matches from the firewall dashboard. Bot Protection Policy SiteFort provides three bot protection presets for straightforward setup, with the option to allow or block specific bots and crawlers individually. Basic: Blocks known hacking tools and bots probing for vulnerable files and common attack paths. Balanced: Adds protection against scraping bots and automated scripts. Recommended for most WordPress sites. Maximum: Extends filtering to unrecognized bot traffic for sites that require stricter automation controls. AI Training Crawlers: Optionally block training-focused crawlers such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot, and Bytespider while supported AI assistants and AI search crawlers remain allowed. Supported search crawlers are verified using reverse DNS and published IP ranges and are allowed through bot protection, while bots impersonating known search engines are detected and blocked. Vulnerability Scanner SiteFort checks installed WordPress core, plugins, and themes against vulnerability intelligence and identifies affected versions, severity, and available remediation. Affected Components: Identifies vulnerable WordPress core, plugins, and themes with installed versions, severity, and CVE references where available. Fix Guidance: Shows fixed versions and recommended actions when remediation information is available. Vulnerability Probe Protection: Firewall controls block automated discovery attempts targeting vulnerable plugins, themes, and known component paths while affected software is being updated, replaced, or removed. SiteFort does not virtually patch vulnerable code. Vulnerable components should be updated, replaced, or removed using the available remediation guidance. Malware Repair & Quarantine Delete or Quarantine (Free): Remove malicious or unwanted files from scan results, with optional quarantine for recovery when needed. One-Click Repair (Pro): Repairs malicious or modified files directly from scan results when a trusted clean source is available. Clean-File Restore (Pro): Restores supported WordPress core, plugin, and theme files, including selected commercial plugins and themes when verified clean sources are available. For active WordPress compromises requiring hands-on investigation, Securewp expert cleanup is available for malware removal, root-cause remediation, blocklist assistance, and post-cleanup review. WordPress Security Audit Log SiteFort records important security and administrative activity, providing a clear history for review and investigation. Login Activity: Successful and failed logins, lockouts, 2FA events, and account-related activity. User Changes: User creation, updates, role changes, and other account actions. Plugin & Theme Activity: Installations, activations, deactivations, updates, and other recorded changes. Security & Settings Changes: Hardening, login security, firewall configuration, and other sensitive administrative changes. SiteFort Console SiteFort Console provides a central panel for managing security across multiple WordPress sites. No separate add-on is required; Console connectivity can be enabled or disabled directly from the SiteFort plugin. Run security scans and review findings across sites. Monitor vulnerabilities and update hardening settings remotely. Review security status, scan history, uptime, and SSL expiry. Route alerts and download reports for individual sites or clients. Manage team access and support workflows from one place. All site-level security features remain available directly in WordPress; Console adds centralized management for multiple sites. Hosting Compatibility SiteFort supports shared hosting, managed WordPress hosting, VPS, and dedicated servers across Apache, Nginx, and LiteSpeed. Cloudflare: Works with Cloudflare-proxied sites and supports optional firewall rule sync for edge enforcement. Lower-Resource Hosting: Hash-first file verification and cloud-assisted deep analysis reduce scan workload on the hosting server. Flexible Server Support: Does not require a specific web server stack or managed hosting environment. Free vs Pro SiteFort Free includes security hardening, firewall and bot protection, login security and 2FA, vulnerability scanning, activity logging, and 3,000 monthly cloud scan credits. Pro removes the cloud analysis limit and adds automation, repair, monitoring, alerts, and reporting. SiteFort Pro adds: Unlimited deep threat analysis Scheduled malware scans and automated vulnerability alerts One-click malware repair and clean-file restore Uptime and SSL expiry monitoring Slack, Discord, email, and webhook alerts Remote scan history and detailed security reports White-label options for agencies Managed adds hands-on monitoring, incident response workflows, and expert cleanup coverage from the Securewp team. See the WordPress Security Plugin Comparison for a feature-by-feature comparison with other WordPress security plugins. External services SiteFort uses external services only for features that require them, including license activation, cloud-assisted malware analysis, vulnerability and firewall intelligence, reputation checks, optional Console sync, CAPTCHA, GeoIP, Cloudflare Sync, and administrator-configured notifications. Optional integrations are not contacted unless they are enabled or used. SiteFort Cloud Servers: securewp.net, intel.securewp.net, console.securewp.net Used for: License activation, service metadata, cloud malware analysis, vulnerability intelligence, firewall intelligence, reputation checks, community blocklist sync, clean-file repair, and optional Console sync. Data sent: Email address, license key or token, site URL, WordPress and plugin versions, installed plugin and theme names and versions, file hashes, scan results, vulnerability findings, reputation status, firewall metadata, blocked IP addresses, and security configuration metadata. Malware scanning: File hashes are sent first. Only unknown or suspicious files may be uploaded for deeper analysis and are deleted after processing. Database and content checks run on the protected site and are not uploaded to the SiteFort cloud. If wp-config.php requires analysis, sensitive configuration values are removed before upload. Temporary storage: SiteFort Cloud may return temporary *.amazonaws.com upload or download URLs for malware analysis or clean-file repair. Privacy: https://securewp.net/privacy-policy/ Terms: https://securewp.net/terms-and-conditions/ Storage provider policies: AWS privacy https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/ and terms https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/; Cloudflare privacy https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/ and terms https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/ Optional integrations MaxMind GeoLite2 (download.maxmind.com): Used only when an administrator downloads or updates the local GeoIP database. The configured MaxMind account ID and license key are sent to MaxMind. Visitor IP addresses are resolved locally and are not sent to MaxMind during normal requests. Privacy: https://www.maxmind.com/en/privacy-policy Terms: https://www.maxmind.com/en/geolite2/eula Have I Been Pwned Passwords (api.pwnedpasswords.com): Used for breached-password checks when enabled. SiteFort sends only the first 5 characters of the SHA-1 password hash. Full passwords and full hashes are not sent. Privacy: https://haveibeenpwned.com/Privacy Terms: https://haveibeenpwned.com/TermsOfUse Google reCAPTCHA (www.google.com) and Cloudflare Turnstile (challenges.cloudflare.com): Used only when selected and configured for CAPTCHA protection. The selected provider receives the challenge token, site key, and visitor or browser data required to process the challenge. Policies: https://policies.google.com/privacy https://policies.google.com/terms https://www.cloudflare.com/turnstile-privacy-policy/ https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/ Cloudflare API (api.cloudflare.com): Used only when Cloudflare Sync is enabled. SiteFort sends the Zone ID, API token or credentials, zone details, blocked IP addresses, country rules, selected user-agent rules, and firewall rule data required for synchronization. Privacy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/ Terms: https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/ Notification webhooks: Security alerts may be sent to Slack (hooks.slack.com), Discord (discord.com, discordapp.com), or a custom HTTPS webhook configured by the administrator. Payloads may include site name, site URL, event type, severity, scan counts, vulnerability names, CVE identifiers, firewall counts, usernames, IP addresses, browser names, action URLs, timestamps, and event details. Slack policies: https://slack.com/trust/privacy/privacy-policy https://slack.com/terms-of-service/user Discord policies: https://discord.com/privacy https://discord.com/terms Local site checks Some SiteFort checks send loopback requests to the protected site’s own public URL, including security-header checks, public-file exposure checks, and homepage link collection. These requests contact the protected site itself, not a third-party service.