Login Security Solution

Installation Instructions

1. Before installing this plugin, read the FAQ!

2. If your WP install is behind a proxy or load balancer, please be aware
   that this plugin uses the REMOTE_ADDR provided by the web server
   (as does WordPress’ new comment functionality and the Akismet plugin).
   If you want our brute force tracking to work, we advise adjusting your
   wp-config.php file to manually set the REMOTE_ADDR to a data
   source appropriate for your environment. For example:

       $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] = preg_replace('/^([^,]+).*$/', '\1',
           $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']);
   

3. Download the Login Security Solution zip file from WordPress’ plugin
   site: https://wordpress.org/plugins/login-security-solution/

4. Unzip the file.

5. Our existing tests are very effective, catching all of the 2 million
   entries in the Dazzlepod password list. But if you need to block
   specific passwords that my tests miss, this plugin offers the ability
   to provide your own dictionary files.

   Add a file to the pw_dictionaries directory and place those passwords
   in it. One password per line.

   Please be aware that checking the password files is computationally
   expensive. The following script runs through each of the password
   files and weeds out passwords caught by the other
   tests:

       php utilities/reduce-dictionary-files.php
   

6. If your website has a large number of non-English-speaking users:

   • See if a keyboard sequence file exists in this plugin’s
     pw_sequences directory for your target languages. The following steps
     are for left-to-right languages. (For right-to-left languages, flip the
     direction of the motions indicated.)

     • Open a text editor and create a file in the pw_sequences
       directory
     • Hold down the shift key
     • Press the top left character key of the keyboard.
       NOTE: during this entire process, do not press function, control
       or whitespace keys (like tab, enter, delete, arrows, space, etc).
     • Work your way across the top row, pressing each key across the
       row, one by one
     • Press the left-most character key in the second row
     • Go across the second row pressing each key
     • Continue through the entire keyboard in the same manner
     • Let go of the shift key
     • Re-start the process at the top left key of the keyboard and
       work your way through the keyboard, now in lower-case mode
     • Save the file and close the editor
     • Feel free to submit the files to me so others can use it. See
       the features request section, below.

   • If a translation file for your language does not exist in this
     plugin’s languages directory, add one. Read
     https://codex.wordpress.org/I18n_for_WordPress_Developers for
     details. The files must use UTF-8 encoding. Send me the file and
     I’ll include it in future releases. See the features request
     section, below.

7. The last step of the new password validation process is checking if
   the password matches an entry in the dict program. See if dict
   is installed on your server and consider installing it if not.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dict

8. Upload the login-security-solution directory to your
   server’s /wp-content/plugins/ directory

9. Activate the plugin using WordPress’ admin interface:

   • Regular sites: Plugins
   • Sites using multisite networks: My Sites | Network Admin | Plugins

10. Adjust the settings as desired. This plugin’s settings page can be
    reached via a sub-menu entry under WordPress’ “Settings” menu or this
    plugin’s entry on WordPress’ “Plugins” page. Sites using WordPress’
    multisite network capability will find the “Settings” and “Plugin”
    menus under “My Sites | Network Admin”.

11. Run the “Change All Passwords” process. This is necessary to ensure
    all of your users have strong passwords. The user interface for
    doing so is accessible via a link in this plugin’s entry on
    WordPress’ “Plugins” page.

12. Ensure your password strength by changing it.

Hooks

Login Security Solution provides hooks
in critical methods, allowing you to add custom behaviors.

Compatibility with Other Plugins

• Better WP Security: Their “Enable Login Limits” and “Enable strong
  password enforcement” functionality conflict with our features. The good
  news is we provide more robust protection in those areas and the Better WP
  Security “Settings” page lets you disable those features in their plugin.
  This way you get to enjoy even better security than either plugin alone.

Why should I pick a user name other than “admin”?

The WordPress installation process (currently) defaults to having the
main administrator’s user’s name be “admin.” Many people don’t change it.
Attackers know this, so now all they need to do to get into such sites is
guess the password.

In addition, if you try to log in while your site is being attacked, this
plugin will send you through the password reset process in order to verify
your identity. While not the end of the world, it’s inconvenient.

Where did the “Change All Passwords” interface go?

A link to the page is found in this plugin’s entry in the “Plugins” admin
interface:

• Regular sites: Plugins
• Sites using multisite networks: My Sites | Network Admin | Plugins

I just got hit with 500 failed logins! Why isn’t this plugin working?!?

Let’s turn the question around: “How long did it take to get in those 500
hits?” Chances are it took hours. (Six hours if they’re attacking with one
thread, 2 hours if they’re coming at you with three threads, etc.) If this
plugin wasn’t working, they’d have pulled it off under a minute. Similarly,
without the slowed responses this plugin provides, an attacker given six
hours against your site could probably get in over 170,000 hits.

Anyway, my real question for you is “Did they get in?” I’ll bet not. The
strong passwords this plugin requires from your users lowers the chances of
someone breaking in to just about zero.

And even if they do get lucky and figure out a password, Login Security
Solution realizes they’re miscreants and kicks them out.

Will you provide lock outs / blocks in addition to slow downs?

If you look at it the right way, Login Security Solution provides lockouts
(where “lockout” means “denies access” to attackers.) Below is a comparison
of the attack handling logic used by Limit Login Attempts and Login Security
Solution.

Limit Login Attempts

• Invalid or Valid Credentials by Attacker or Actual User

  1. Process authentication request (check IP address)
  2. Error message: “Too many failed login attempts.” (ACCESS DENIED.)

Note, this approach means an actual user can be denied access for 12 hours after making 4 mistakes.

Login Security Solution

• Invalid Credentials by Attacker or Actual User

  1. Process authentication request (check IP, user name, and password)
  2. Slow down the response
  3. Error message: “Incorrect username or password.” (ACCESS DENIED.)

• Valid Credentials by Attacker

  1. Process authentication request (check IP, user name, and password)
  2. Slow down the response
  3. Set force password change flag for user
  4. Error message: “Your password must be reset. Please submit this form to reset it.” (ACCESS DENIED.)

• Valid Credentials by Actual User

  1. Process authentication request (check IP, user name, and password)
  2. (If user is coming from their verified IP address, let them in, END)
  3. Slow down the response
  4. Error message: “Your password must be reset. Please submit this form to reset it.” (ACCESS DENIED.)
  5. On subsequent request… user verifies their identity via password reset process
  6. User’s IP address is added to their verified IP list for future reference

So both plugins deny access to attackers. But Login Security Solution has
the bonuses of letting legitimate users log in and slowing the attacks down.
Plus LSS monitors user names, passwords, and IP’s for attacks, while all of
the other plugins just watch the IP address.

Won’t the slowdowns open my website to Denial of Service (DOS) attacks?

Yeah, the DOS potential is there. I mitigated it for the most part by
disconnecting the database link (the most precious resource in most
situations) before sleeping. But remember, distributed denial of service
attacks are fairly easy to initiate these days. If someone really wants to
shut down your site, they’ll be able to do it without even touching this
plugin’s login failure process.

Where should I report bugs and feature requests?

Development of this plugin happens on
GitHub.
Please submit
bug and feature requests,
pull requests,
wiki entries
on our GitHub.

Information for Translators

1. Do not commit the .mo files! They get created as part of the
   release process.
2. Translation commits and pull requests should only touch the .po
   file. If you have other changes you wish to see made, please do so
   via separate commits in separate pull requests.
3. When translating a new feature, please make that one commit. If other
   parts of the translation need updating, please make them in a separate
   commit.
4. Please don’t change formatting inside the .po file
5. Run git diff before all commits. Ensure only expected changes
   are being made.
6. Do NOT translate items that have a comment above them saying
   Translation from WordPress. DO NOT TRANSLATE IT IN THIS PLUGIN.
   When starting a new translation, please take a look at an existing
   .po file to see which strings they are. Those phrases are already
   translated in WordPress’ core. Leaving them untranslated here ensures
   consistency with the rest of WordPress.

7. To start a new translation:

   cd languages
   

Adjust “CC” to your country code.

cp login-security-solution.pot login-security-solution-lc_CC.po

Edit the new login-security-solution-lc_CC.po file.

Translation Information for Developers

• To update the .pot file:

  1. WordPress’ makepot utility directory should be in the same directory
     as the login-security-solution directory. If you don’t have this
     setup, here’s what to do:

     • cd into the directory above this one.
     • svn checkout https://i18n.svn.wordpress.org/tools/trunk/ makepot

     • So, now you’ll have:

       parent dir
           |- login-security-solution/
           |- makepot/
       

  2. cd login-security-solution/languages

  3. ./makepot.sh

• Then, bringing the .po files up to date is as easy as:

  1. ./updatepos.sh

• Finally, to update the .mo files for testing or release:

  1. ./makemos.sh

0.56.0 (2016-08-13)

• Fix translation domain to be string in one __() call.

0.55.0 (2016-01-30)

• Block discovering user names via the “?author=” query string

0.54.0 (2016-01-27)

• Fix memory exhaustion on sites with many users during plugin activation
  if password history is enabled
• Put “in” in “Please log and change it”

0.53.0 (2015-09-25)

• Change translation domain from constant to string in preparation for
  integration with translate.wordpress.org

0.52.0 (2015-05-25)

• Silence safe mode warnings from is_readable()
• Add Polish translation
• Add Finnish translation
• Rename Japanese translation files from ja_JP to ja

0.51.0 (2015-03-15)

• Security Fixes:
  • Remove calls to dict. Parse dict file if available instead.
  • Remove use of grep.

0.50.0 (2014-12-25)

• Take advantage of WP 4.1’s new password_hint filter
• Add Italian translation

0.49.0 (2014-11-10)

• Fix password policy hint on password reset form broken by changes in WP

0.48.0 (2014-10-17)

• Fix “DoS Tier” setting validation so it can be set to 0.

0.47.0 (2014-10-15)

• Add the “DoS Tier,” above “Delay Tier 3,” beyond which respones are no
  longer slowed down, keeping sites from befalling Denial of Service conditions
• Add the “Deletion Interval” and “Deletion Days” settings for
  automatically removing old data
• Added “action” hooks:
  • login_security_solution_insert_fail
  • login_security_solution_notify_breach
  • login_security_solution_notify_fail
  • login_security_solution_fail_tier_dos
• Added “filter” hooks. See “Hooks” in the “Installation” tab for more info.
  • login_security_solution_notify_breach_subject
  • login_security_solution_notify_breach_message
  • login_security_solution_notify_breach_user_subject
  • login_security_solution_notify_breach_user_message
  • login_security_solution_notify_fail_subject
  • login_security_solution_notify_fail_message
• Escape WP’s table_prefix before use
• Use WP’s remove_submenu_page() (instead of using an empty title) to keep
  Change All Passwords off the settings menu
• Add label/id for settings fields

0.46.0 (2014-10-03)

• Fix password policy hint broken by changes in WP 3.9
• Adjust unit tests for new auth cookie format in WP 4.0

0.45.0 (2014-08-17)

• Adjust for password reset process for security changes in WP 3.9.2

0.44.0 (2014-05-30)

• Handle mysqli usage
• Indicate that setting “Match Time” to 0 disables slowdowns, notifications,
  and breach confirmations.
• If “Match Time” is 0, return empty values rather than running queries.

0.43.0 (2014-01-16)

• By popular demand, notification emails now include the full IP address.

0.42.0 (2013-07-06)

• Have Maintenence Mode messaging say who turned it on and how to turn it off.
• Added pw_sequence for German T1 keyboard layout. (cfoellmann)

0.41.0 (2013-06-26)

• Fix “authenticate filter not called” when auth process lacks a user name.

0.40.0 (2013-06-22)

• Track the age of verified IP’s and use that to prevent users being locked
  out by “attacks” from one’s own IP address.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.3.27-dev, 5.4.17-dev, 5.5.0-dev
• Tested under WordPress 3.4.2, 3.5.2 and 3.6beta4 using regular and multisite.

0.39.0 (2013-05-29)

• Enforce password history during password reset process.

0.38.0 (2013-05-27)

• Mention that the password force change process does not touch the admin
  that presses the button.
• Remove HTML special characters when using WP’s blogname setting.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.3.27-dev, 5.4.17-dev, 5.5.0-dev
• Tested under WordPress 3.5.1 and 3.6beta3 using regular and multisite.

0.37.0 (2013-04-29)

• Monitor login attempts from XML-RPC requests.
• Fix “te ernstig te” in the Dutch translation (thanks fwieringen@github).

0.36.0 (2013-04-13)

• Have the password reset page say why a password isn’t strong enough.
• Add Dutch translation.

0.35.0 (2013-02-22)

• Don’t track cookie failures if name or hash is empty.
• Add German translation.
• Update French translation.
• Documentation improvements.

0.34.0 (2012-10-21)

• Have login_errors filter check $wp_error also, not just $errors.
• Skip exec() calls if safe_mode is on.
• Unit tests pass using WordPress 3.5 RC2 under PHP 5.4.5-dev and 5.3.19-dev.

0.33.0 (2012-10-18)

• Add text to failure alerts saying the attacker will be denied access.
• Have failure alerts say there won’t be further emails.

0.32.0 (2012-10-04)

• SIGNIFICANT CHANGE: Reduce the number of emails sent to administrators:
  add the “Multiple Failure Notifications” setting and make the default “No.”
• Remove the (superfluous) “If it WAS YOU…” part of the user notification
  emails.
• Use wp_cache_flush() in unit tests, wp_cache_reset() deprecated in 3.5.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.4.5-dev, 5.3.16-dev.
• Tested under WordPress 3.4.2 and 3.5beta1 using regular and multisite.

0.31.0 (2012-09-25)

• Have breach notification emails detail the exact situation depending on
  the system’s settings.

0.30.0 (2012-09-17)

• Translate “Confirm” and “No thanks” phrases on the settings screen.
• Adjust readme to indicate that development has moved to
  GitHub.

0.29.0 (2012-09-17)

• Adjust formatting of the CREATE TABLE statement in activate() to prevent
  WordPress’ dbDelta() from creating duplicate keys each time the plugin is
  activated.

0.28.1 (2012-09-15)

• Update .mo translation files.

0.28.0 (2012-09-15)

• Remove loophole: slow down successful logins as well (for non-verified
  IP addresses). Keeps attackers from using timeouts to skip our delayed
  responses to failed login attempts.
• Reduce false positives for breach notifications and password resets:
  • Allow users through without incident if the user’s Network IP failure
    count is less than the “Breach Email Confirm” setting. The old
    behavior was to do so only if the Network IP failure count was 0.
  • Add user’s current IP to their verified IP list whenever they save
    their profile page, not just when they change their password.
  • Fix when user notifications are sent. Do so if the IP address is
    NOT verified instead of if the IP address IS verified. Duh.
  • Don’t notify administrators of a successful login if the user is
    coming in from a verified IP address.
  • Change subject line of user notification emails to differentiate them
    from emails sent to admins.
  • Reword user notification email and have it explain how to reduce
    future hassles.
• Remove URIs from user notification email to avoid phishing imitations.
• Add pt_BR translation. Thanks to Valdir Trombini.
• Put plugin version number in admin notification emails.
• Update the fr_FR translation: update password policy, add settings page.
• Put Unicode flag on the two preg calls that didn’t have it. Fixes
  password parsing problem on Windows.
• Add date to log() messages.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.4.5-dev, 5.3.16-dev, and 5.2.18-dev.
• Tested under WordPress 3.4.2 using regular and multisite.
• Also tested on Windows 7 using WordPress 3.4.1 and PHP 5.4.5 with mbstring
  enabled and disabled.

0.27.0 (2012-09-04)

• Remove the password policy explanation link added in 0.26.0.

0.26.0 (2012-09-01)

• Put a link in the password policy to an explanation of why it’s necessary.

0.25.0 (2012-08-30)

• Load text domain for password policy on password reset page.
• Have password policy mention that it can’t contain words related to
  the user or the website.

0.24.0 (2012-08-29)

• Keep the password strength indicator from being enabled.
• Narrow down when the password policy text filter is enabled.

0.23.0 (2012-08-24)

• Split user and site info into components before comparing them.
• Increase minimum password length to 10 characters.

0.22.0 (2012-08-17)

• Track a given IP, user name, password combination only once.
• Prevent “not a valid MySQL-Link resource” on auth cookie failure.
• Increase default value of login_fail_notify from 20 to 50.
• Add partial French translation. Settings page needs doing. Thanks
  mermouy!

0.21.0 (2012-08-07)

• Fix is_pw_outside_ascii() to permit spaces.
• In multisite mode, send notifications to network admin, not blog admin.
• Add “Notifications To” setting for admins to specify the email addresses
  the failure and breach notifications get sent to. (Request #1560)
• Clarify that the Change All Passwords link just goes to the UI.
• Get all unit tests to pass when mbstring isn’t enabled.
• Internationalize the unit tests.
• Rename admin.inc to admin.php.
• Rename temporary files holding actual test results. (Bug #1552 redux)
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.4.5-dev, 5.3.16-dev, and 5.2.18-dev.
• Tested under WordPress 3.4.1 using regular and multisite.
• Also tested on Windows 7 using PHP 5.4.5 and WordPress 3.4.1.

0.20.2 (2012-07-12)

• Ugh, update the translation pot file.

0.20.1 (2012-07-12)

• Add “numbers” to the password policy text.

0.20.0 (2012-07-12)

• Replace WP’s password policy text with our own.

0.19.0 (2012-07-11)

• Remove inadvertent log call added in 0.17.0.

0.18.0 (2012-07-11)

• Keep legit user from having to repeatedly reset pw during active attacks
  against their user name.

0.17.0 (2012-07-09)

• Fix network IP query in get_login_fail(). (Bug #1553,
  deanmarktaylor)
• Rename files holding expected test results. (Bug #1552,
  deanmarktaylor)

0.16.0 (2012-07-08)

• Have shell script gracefully handle value already being the desired value.

0.15.0 (2012-07-06)

• Log auth cookie failures too.
• Clean up sleep logic. (Bug #1549,
  deanmarktaylor)

0.14.0 (2012-07-05)

• Fix emails being mistakenly sent in multisite mode that say “There have
  been at least 0 failed attempts to log in”. (Bug #1548,
  deanmarktaylor)
• Add an .htaccess file that blocks access to this plugin’s directory.

0.13.0 (2012-07-01)

• Add a script for turning our “Disable Logins” feature on and off from the
  command line.

0.12.0 (2012-06-30)

• Display a notice on top of admin pages when our maintenance mode is enabled.

0.11.0 (2012-06-28)

• Use POST value for $user_name in login_errors() because global value
  isn’t always set.
• Add some more (commented out) log() calls to help users help me help them.

0.10.0 (2012-06-16)

• Catch $user_ID not being set during “Change All Passwords” submission.
• Add (commented out) log() calls in important spots. Enables users to
  help me help them.

0.9.0 (2012-06-16)

• Fix change that prevented users from logging in after using the password
  reset process with an insecure password. Users can now pick a better
  password right on the spot.
• Regenerate translation POT file.
• Tested under WordPress 3.3.2 and 3.4RC3, both using regular and multisite.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.4.0RC8-dev, 5.3.11-dev, and 5.2.18-dev.

0.8.0 (2012-04-29)

• Fix logging user out a second time after WordPress expires cookies.
• It turns out this plugin requires WordPress 3.3, not 3.0.
• Tested under WordPress 3.3.2 regular and 3.4beta2 multisite.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.4.0RC8-dev, 5.3.11-dev, and 5.2.18-dev.

0.7.0 (2012-04-25)

• The “lost your password” process now validates passwords.
• Tested under WordPress 3.3.1 regular and 3.4beta2 multisite.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.4.0RC8-dev, 5.3.11-dev, and 5.2.18-dev.

0.6.1 (2012-04-19)

• Minor wording adjustments.

0.6.0 (2012-04-18)

• Use ENT_QUOTES instead of ENT_COMPAT in htmlspecialchars() calls
  because WordPress mixes and matches the double and single quotes to
  delimit attributes.
• Tested under WordPress 3.3.1 regular and 3.4beta2 multisite.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.4.0RC8-dev, 5.3.11-dev, and 5.2.18-dev.

0.5.0 (2012-04-18)

• Have multisite network mode use the saved options instead of the defaults.
• Close more HTML injection vectors. (One would think WordPress’ built in
  functions would already do this. Alas…)
• Get the success/error messages to work when saving settings via the
  Network Admin page.
• Improve unit tests by ensuring the fail table uses InnoDB.
• Tested under WordPress 3.3.1 regular and 3.4beta2 multisite.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.4.0RC8-dev, 5.3.11-dev, and 5.2.18-dev.

0.4.0 (2012-04-17)

• Add multisite network support.
• Keep unit tests from deleting settings. Note: removes the ability to
  run the unit tests without activating the plugin.
• Tested under WordPress 3.3.1 regular and 3.4beta2 multisite.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.4.0RC8-dev, 5.3.11-dev, and 5.2.18-dev.

0.3.0 (2012-04-04)

• Use UTF-8 encoding for htmlspecialchars() instead of DB_CHARSET.
• Tested under WordPress 3.3.1.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.4.0RC8-dev, 5.3.11-dev, and 5.2.18-dev.

0.2.1 (2012-04-03)

• Ensure all files are in the state I intended. Needed because
  WordPress’ plugin site automatically rolls releases.

0.2.0 (2012-04-03)

• Utilize the $encoding parameter of htmlspecialchars() to avoid
  problems under PHP 5.4.
• Tested under WordPress 3.3.1.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.4.0RC8-dev, 5.3.11-dev, and 5.2.18-dev.

0.1.0 (2012-03-26)

• Beta release.

0.0.4 (2012-03-22)

• Initial import to plugins.svn.wordpress.org.

0.0.3

• Fix mix ups in the code saving the “Change All Passwords” admin UI.
• Adjust IdleTest so it doesn’t radically change wp_users auto increment.
• Tested under WordPress 3.3.1.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.4.0RC8-dev, 5.3.11-dev, and 5.2.18-dev.

0.0.2

• Use Unicode character properties to improve portability.
• Stop tests short if not in a WordPress install.
• Skip dict test if dict not available.
• Skip database tests if transactions are not available.
• Tested under WordPress 3.3.1.
• Unit tests pass using PHP 5.4.0RC8-dev, 5.3.11-dev, and 5.2.18-dev.

0.0.1 (2012-03-19)

• Post the code for public review.
• Tested under WordPress 3.3.1.