Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal vs Vigilant – 100% Free Security Suite

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/

Premium Security. Zero Cost. Vigilant provides enterprise-level WordPress security features completely free. No premium version, no upsells, no hidden features behind paywalls. Protect your site with a complete security suite: firewall, two-factor authentication, brute force protection, security headers, file integrity monitoring, closed plugin detection, malware detection, user management, security audit logging, under attack mode and much more. Once activated, Vigilant immediately applies firewall rules against common attacks (SQL injection, XSS, file inclusion), security headers, login attempt monitoring, XML-RPC blocking, WordPress version hiding and sensitive file protection (.htaccess, wp-config.php), after automatically backing up your existing configuration files. One-Click Security Presets Choose a preset and get protected instantly: Standard – Balanced security suitable for most websites. Enables all modules with sensible defaults that won’t interfere with normal site operation. Maximum Security – Strictest settings for high-security sites. Tighter rate limits, stronger CSP rules, mandatory admin notifications. May require fine-tuning for some setups. You can always customize individual settings after applying a preset. Under Attack Mode Is your site under active attack? Activate Under Attack mode with one click and stop malicious traffic instantly: JavaScript challenge – Every visitor must pass an automatic browser verification before accessing your site. Real browsers solve it in seconds, bots get blocked completely Aggressive rate limiting – Requests limited to 30 per minute with 15-minute blocks for offenders HTTP method restriction – Only GET, POST and HEAD allowed; PUT, DELETE, PATCH, OPTIONS and TRACE are blocked Empty user agent blocking – Requests without a user agent header are rejected Full XML-RPC lockdown during the attack REST API restriction – Only authenticated users can access the REST API Auto-deactivation – Mode turns off after 4 hours so you never forget it’s on Email notifications when the mode activates and deactivates HMAC-signed cookies – Verified visitors get a signed cookie so they only see the challenge once Under Attack mode works independently from your preset configuration. Your regular settings are preserved and restored when the mode deactivates. Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Add a second verification step to your WordPress login: Authenticator app (TOTP) – Google Authenticator, Authy, Microsoft Authenticator or any TOTP-compatible app Email codes – One-time 6-digit verification codes sent via email QR code setup directly in user profiles 10 backup codes for emergency access if you lose your device Configurable grace period for users to set up their authenticator app Trusted devices – optionally let users skip 2FA on recognized devices for 30 days Role-based enforcement – require 2FA for administrators, editors or any role Exclude specific users from 2FA requirements Admin tool to reset TOTP for users who lost their authenticator Configurable code expiry, attempt limits and email sender name User notification emails when 2FA is enabled or the method changes Firewall Protection Block malicious requests before they reach WordPress: SQL injection blocking XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) attack prevention File inclusion protection (LFI/RFI) Directory traversal blocking Bad query string filtering (catches generic suspicious patterns the specific blockers miss) Bad bot detection and blocking Block requests with empty user agent Block legacy HTTP/1.0 requests (almost always automated tools, never modern browsers) Rate limiting against DDoS and brute force, with optional progressive lockouts IP whitelist and blacklist management (IPv4 and IPv6, with CIDR ranges and wildcards) User-Agent whitelist and blacklist with partial matching Visitor IP detection control – read the real IP directly from the connection (a spoof-proof default) or from a proxy header when behind Cloudflare, a reverse proxy or a load balancer, with an admin notice if a proxy is detected but not configured HTTP method restriction Server-level file protection via .htaccess: block direct access to wp-config.php, .htaccess, wp-includes/ and sensitive files (.log, .sql, .bak, .ini, debug.log, readme.html, etc.), and optionally wp-cron.php external access Block PHP execution in /uploads (one of the most common post-exploit vectors) Disable directory browsing Login Security Stop unauthorized access attempts: Limit login attempts with configurable thresholds Progressive lockouts – longer blocks for repeat offenders Custom login URL – hide wp-login.php from bots Login URL change notifications to all admin-area users Hide login error messages – don’t reveal valid usernames XML-RPC disable, with a separate toggle for just the pingback method if you still need other XML-RPC features Application passwords control Email notification when an IP is blocked for exceeding login attempts Admin login notifications via email IP whitelist for trusted locations User Security Comprehensive user account protection: Block insecure usernames (admin, test, root, etc.) on new registrations Warn about existing users with insecure usernames so you can rename or remove them Block author scanning – intercept ?author=N URLs so WordPress doesn’t redirect them to /author/USERNAME/ and leak the login slug Force strong passwords with minimum length Password expiration with configurable intervals Password history – prevent reusing old passwords Force password reset – by specific users, by role, or all users (post-hack recovery) Session limits – control concurrent logins per user Session management – view and revoke active sessions Email verification for new registrations Registration approval workflow – manually approve new users Admin account monitoring – alerts for new admins, email changes, password changes, privilege escalation Display name protection – prevent exposing login username publicly Security Headers Achieve Grade A security ratings: Content Security Policy (CSP) with visual builder and Report-Only mode for safe testing before enforcing HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) with includeSubdomains and preload options X-Frame-Options – prevent clickjacking X-Content-Type-Options – prevent MIME sniffing Referrer Policy control Permissions Policy (camera, microphone, geolocation, payment, USB) Cross-Origin policies (COEP, COOP, CORP) HTTPS enforcer with automatic mixed content fix Server fingerprint hiding – the Server: header is neutralized and X-Powered-By and other fingerprinting headers are stripped from responses File Integrity Monitoring Detect unauthorized changes to your files and compromised plugins: WordPress core verification against official checksums Plugin and theme file monitoring with WordPress.org checksums Critical config files (wp-config.php, .htaccess) monitored against baseline, detecting code injection even in files with no official checksum Closed and removed plugins detection – daily check against the WordPress.org repository, flagging any installed plugin closed for malware, security issues or guideline violations, including both explicit closures and silent “removed” takedowns, with per-slug Ignore for legacy plugins you can’t uninstall yet Line-level diff view of changes, with per-file approval workflow Suspicious code scanning for plugins and themes without checksums Extra file detection in plugins and themes (files not in original distribution) Uploads directory scanning for PHP files, double extensions and .htaccess, with smart classification of dangerous rules vs protective ones Root directory scanning for non-core PHP files (common attack vector) String concatenation obfuscation detection Configurable notification levels and an ignore list to dismiss known files Excluded paths and file extensions Scheduled automatic scans (daily, weekly) HTML formatted email alerts with severity sections, including a dedicated section for closed plugins Security Audit Track everything happening on your site: Successful and failed login attempts Two-factor authentication events User account changes (creation, deletion, role changes) Content modifications (posts, pages) Plugin and theme activations/deactivations Security events and blocked threats HTTP request method tracking and filtering (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) Enhanced log detail popup with grouped sections and quick actions One-click add IP or User-Agent to firewall whitelist/blacklist from log entries Direct IP lookup links to AbuseIPDB Configurable retention period, CSV export, and filtering by event type, severity, request method or date Audit Alerts – get an email when the audit log points to something worth your attention, off by default and configured under Security Audit: Immediate alerts the moment a serious event is logged, by minimum severity (a new administrator, a closed plugin or a privilege escalation are all logged as Critical) Threshold alerts when a category spikes – firewall blocks, login failures, user, plugin, file integrity, security, system and content events – over a 30-minute, 1, 6 or 24 hour window, counting only warning and critical events so routine activity never trips them A single anti-repeat cooldown keeps a storm of events down to one notice instead of flooding your inbox Active alerts surface in Settings & Tools, the Dashboard, the Configuration Score and the Security Check “Send test email” button to confirm delivery Security Check On-demand security audit built into the Dashboard. No external services, no accounts, no API keys – everything runs on your server: 40+ checks across 6 categories: SSL/TLS, HTTP Headers, WP Exposure, Access & Auth, Sensitive Files and Internal Checks Single 0-100 score with A-E grade, plus per-category breakdown and explanatory details for every check 15 exclusive internal checks impossible from the outside: PHP end-of-life status, pending updates, inactive plugins, closed or removed plugins, file permissions, default salts detection, wp_ table prefix, admin username, administrators without 2FA enrolled, module status, recent audit errors, last File Integrity scan result and whether audit alerts are configured DNS-only reputation lookup against Spamhaus ZEN, Barracuda BRBL and SpamCop SCBL (informational – listings are flagged but don’t deduct from the score) Two-phase scan: fast local checks appear in under a second, remote checks stream in as they complete Weekly automatic scan with opt-in email alert if the score drops by 10+ points or a new critical check starts failing 30-scan history with sparkline trend and delta chip “Go to setting” fix link on every failing check, jumping straight to the exact Vigilant field that resolves it Smart header diagnostics that report “configured but not being served” when a cache/CDN overrides your headers WordPress Hardening Layered protection at the WordPress level – admin, content, head, feeds and database: Lock down the admin: disable the built-in plugin and theme file editor, block installations and updates from the admin area, and force HTTPS for the admin area. Compatible with any hosting layout, respecting values already in place and never overriding them Disable WordPress’s internal page-view cron when you already have a real server-side cron job configured Dashboard warning when debug mode is left enabled in production, so error output never leaks to visitors Hide your WordPress version everywhere it can leak: from the HTML head, from RSS and Atom feeds, and optionally from every script and style URL on the front-end (stripping only the WordPress version itself, leaving plugin and theme cache busting intact) Automatic daily removal of readme.html, license.txt and licencia.txt from the WordPress root, which otherwise expose your version HTML head cleanup – remove the RSD link, Windows Live Writer manifest, shortlink header and REST API discovery link Database hardening – check for the default wp_ table prefix and one-click rename tool with full backup before the change Comment security – honeypot field against spam bots, force moderation on every new comment, close comments on old posts, disable pingbacks and trackbacks Feed management – completely disable RSS and Atom feeds, or only disable them when the site has no published content REST API Security Control API access to your site: Three access modes: public (default WordPress behavior), authenticated only (closes the API to anonymous visitors), or selective (custom allow/block lists) Block user enumeration via /wp-json/wp/v2/users Protect any list of sensitive endpoints from anonymous access Per-plugin compatibility toggles so authenticated mode doesn’t break the front-end: WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, WPForms, Elementor, Jetpack. oEmbed and Site Health endpoints stay accessible by default Security Tools Utilities included: Database Backup – Download a full or partial database backup as ZIP with table selection Database Prefix Change – Change the default wp_ prefix to a random secure prefix Export/Import Settings – Transfer your configuration between sites Manual Backup – Create backups of .htaccess and wp-config.php on demand Reset to Defaults – Start fresh with one click Safe by Design Your existing .htaccess, wp-config.php and robots.txt are automatically backed up before any modifications. Backups are stored in the WordPress database, never as files under the web root, and verified with MD5 checksums. When you deactivate Vigilant, all security rules are automatically removed and your original configuration files are restored. No leftover code, no broken sites. Why Vigilant? Most WordPress security plugins reserve their best features for paid plans. Vigilant gives you everything upfront – no premium tier, no feature locks, no upsells. Firewall, 2FA with authenticator app, security headers, file integrity scanner, security audit, on-demand Security Check with weekly regression alerts, and more. All free, all maintained, all following WordPress coding standards. We maintain a detailed feature comparison between Vigilant and other popular security plugins (Wordfence, Solid Security, AIOS, Sucuri, SG Security). See what each offers in its free version and where Vigilant fills the gaps. → View the full comparison Support Need private support or custom development? Do you need one-on-one help, priority troubleshooting, or a custom feature, integration, or tweak built specifically for your site? I offer private support and custom development. Just contact me and tell me what you need. Need help or have suggestions? Official website WordPress support forum YouTube channel Documentation and tutorials Love the plugin? Please leave us a 5-star review and help spread the word! About AyudaWP We are specialists in WordPress security, SEO, AI and performance optimization plugins. We create tools that solve real problems for WordPress site owners while maintaining the highest coding standards and accessibility requirements.