WP Cerber

Comprehensive control of logging in process. Limit login attempts. Custom login page. Permit or restrict login by access lists. Log rules violations.

Author:Cerber Tech Inc. (profile at wordpress.org)
WordPress version required:4.9
WordPress version tested:6.0
Plugin version:9.0
Added to WordPress repository:03-09-2015
Last updated:10-05-2022
Rating, %:96
Rated by:595
Plugin URI:https://wpcerber.com
Total downloads:4 038 461
Active installs:200 000+
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Defends WordPress against hacker attacks, spam, trojans, and malware. Mitigates brute-force attacks by limiting the number of login attempts through the login form, XML-RPC / REST API requests, or using auth cookies. Tracks user and bad actors activity with flexible email, mobile and desktop notifications. Stops spammers by using a specialized anti-spam engine. Uses Google reCAPTCHA to protect registration, contact, and comments forms. Restricts access with IP Access Lists. Monitors the website integrity with an advanced malware scanner and integrity checker. Reinforces the security of WordPress with a set of flexible security rules and sophisticated security algorithms.

Features you will love

  • Limit login attempts when logging in by IP address or entire subnet.
  • Monitors logins made by login forms, XML-RPC requests or auth cookies.
  • Permit or restrict access by IP Access Lists with a single IP, IP range or subnet.
  • Create Custom login URL (rename wp-login.php).
  • Cerber anti-spam engine for protecting contact and registration forms.
  • Automatically detects and moves spam comments to trash or denies them completely.
  • Manage multiple WP Cerber instances from one dashboard.
  • Two-Factor Authentication for WordPress.
  • Logs users, bots, hacker and other suspicious activities.
  • Security scanner verifies the integrity of WordPress files, plugins and themes.
  • Monitors file changes and new files with email notifications and reports.
  • Mobile and email notifications with a set of flexible filters.
  • Advanced users’ sessions manager
  • Protects wp-login.php, wp-signup.php and wp-register.php from attacks.
  • Hides wp-admin (dashboard) if a visitor isn’t logged in.
  • Immediately blocks an intruder IP when attempting to log in with non-existent or prohibited username.
  • Restrict user registration or login with a username matching REGEX patterns.
  • Restrict access to WP REST API with your own role-based security rules.
  • Block access to WordPress REST API completely.
  • Block access to XML-RPC (block access to XML-RPC including Pingbacks and Trackbacks).
  • Disable feeds (block access to the RSS, Atom and RDF feeds).
  • Restrict access to XML-RPC, REST API and feeds by White IP Access list by an IP address or an IP range.
  • Authorized users only mode
  • Block a user account.
  • Disable automatic redirection to the hidden login page.
  • Stop user enumeration (blocks access to author pages and prevents user data leaks via REST API).
  • Proactively blocks IP subnet class C.
  • Anti-spam: reCAPTCHA to protect WordPress login, register and comment forms.
  • reCAPTCHA for WooCommerce & WordPress forms.
  • Invisible reCAPTCHA for WordPress comments forms.
  • A special Citadel mode for massive brute force attacks.
  • Play nice with fail2ban: write failed attempts to the syslog or a custom log file.
  • Filter out and inspect activities by IP address, user, username or a particular activity.
  • Filter out activities and export them to a CSV file.
  • Reporting: get weekly reports to specified email addresses.
  • Limit login attempts works on a site/server behind a reverse proxy.
  • Be notified via mobile push notifications.
  • Trigger and action for the jetFlow.io automation plugin.
  • Protection against (DoS) attacks (CVE-2018-6389).

Limit login attempts done right

By default, WordPress allows unlimited login attempts through the login form, XML-RPC or by sending special cookies. This allows passwords to be cracked with relative ease via brute force attack.

WP Cerber blocks intruders by IP or subnet from making further attempts after a specified limit on retries is reached, making brute force attacks or distributed brute force attacks from botnets impossible.

You will be able to create a Black IP Access List or White IP Access List to block or allow logins from a particular IP address, IP address range or a subnet any class (A,B,C).

Moreover, you can create your Custom login page and forget about automatic attacks to the default wp-login.php, which takes your attention and consumes a lot of server resources. If an attacker tries to access wp-login.php they will be blocked and get a 404 Error response.

Malware scanner

Cerber Security Scanner is a sophisticated and extremely powerful tool that thoroughly scans every folder and inspects every file on a website for traces of malware, trojans, backdoors, changed and new files.

Read more about the malware scanner.

Integrity checker

The scanner checks if all WordPress folders and files match what exist in the official WordPress core repository, compares your plugins and themes with what are in the official WordPress repository and alerts you to any changes. As with scanning free plugins and themes, the scanner scans and verifies commercial plugins and themes that are installed manually.

Scheduled Scans With Automatic File Recovery

Cerber Security Scanner allows you to configure a schedule for automated recurring scanning easily. Once the schedule is configured the scanner automatically scans the website, deletes malware and recovers modified and infected WordPress files. After every scan, you can get an optional email report with the results of the scan.

Read more about the scheduled scans.

Two-Factor Authentication

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) provides an additional layer of security requiring a second factor of identification beyond just a username and password. When 2FA is enabled on a website, it requires a user to provide an additional verification code when signing into the website. This verification code is generated automatically and sent to the user by email.

Read more about Two-Factor Authentication.

Log, filter out and export activities

WP Cerber tracks time, IP addresses and usernames for successful and failed login attempts, logins, logouts, password changes, blocked IP and actions taken by itself. You can export them to a CSV file.

Limit login attempts reinvented

You can hide WordPress dashboard (/wp-admin/) when a user isn’t logged in. If a user isn’t logged in and they attempt to access the dashboard by requesting /wp-admin/, WP Cerber will return a 404 Error.

Massive botnet brute force attack? That’s no longer a problem. Citadel mode will automatically be activated for awhile and prevent your site from making further attempts to log in with any username.

Cerber anti-spam engine

Anti-spam and anti-bot protection for contact, registration, comments and other forms. WP Cerber anti-spam and bot detection engine now protects all forms on a website. No reCAPTCHA is needed. It’s compatible with virtually any form you have. Tested with Gravity Forms, Caldera Forms, HappyForms, Contact Form 7, Ninja Forms, Formidable Forms, Fast Secure Contact Form, Contact Form by WPForms.

Anti-spam protection: invisible reCAPTCHA for WooCommerce

  • WooCommerce login form
  • WooCommerce register form
  • WooCommerce lost password form

Anti-spam protection: invisible reCAPTCHA for WordPress

  • WordPress login form
  • WordPress register form
  • WordPress lost password form
  • WordPress comment form

Integration with Cloudflare

A special Cloudflare add-on for WP Cerber keeps in sync the list of blocked IP addresses with Cloudflare IP Access Rules.

Stay in compliance with GDPR

How to get full control of personal data to be in compliance with data privacy laws such as GDPR in Europe or CCPA in California.

Documentation & Tutorials

Translations

  • Czech, thanks to Hrohh
  • Deutsche, thanks to mario, Mike and Daniel
  • Dutch, thanks to Jos Knippen and Bernardo
  • Français, thanks to hardesfred
  • Norwegian (Bokmål), thanks to Eirik Vorland
  • Portuguese (Portugal), thanks to Helderk
  • Portuguese (Brazil), thanks to Felipe Turcheti
  • Spanish, thanks to Ismael Murias and leemon
  • Український, thanks to Nadia
  • Русский, thanks to Yui
  • Italian, thanks to Francesco Venuti
  • Swedish, thanks to Fredrik Näslund

Thanks to POEditor.com for helping to translate this project.

Compatibility is not verified

There are some plugins that were not checked to be compatible: Login LockDown, Login Security Solution, BruteProtect, Ajax Login & Register, Lockdown WP Admin, Loginizer, Sucuri, Wordfence, BulletProof Security, SiteGuard WP Plugin, iThemes Security, All In One WP Security & Firewall, Brute Force Login Protection

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1. If you want to test out plugin’s features, do this from another computer and remove that computer’s network from the White Access List. Cerber is smart enough to recognize “the boss”.
2. If you’ve set up the Custom login URL and you use some caching plugin like W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache, you have to add a new Custom login URL to the list of pages not to cache.
3. Read this if your website is under CloudFlare

Deutsche
Schützt vor Ort gegen Brute-Force-Attacken. Umfassende Kontrolle der Benutzeraktivität. Beschränken Sie die Anzahl der Anmeldeversuche durch die Login-Formular, XML-RPC-Anfragen oder mit Auth-Cookies. Beschränken Sie den Zugriff mit Schwarz-Weiß-Zugriffsliste Zugriffsliste. Track Benutzer und Einbruch Aktivität.

Français
Protège site contre les attaques par force brute. Un contrôle complet de l’activité de l’utilisateur. Limiter le nombre de tentatives de connexion à travers les demandes formulaire de connexion, XML-RPC ou en utilisant auth cookies. Restreindre l’accès à la liste noire accès et blanc Liste d’accès. L’utilisateur de la piste et l’activité anti-intrusion.

Український
Захищає сайт від атак перебором. Обмежте кількість спроб входу через запити ввійти форми, XML-RPC або за допомогою авторизації в печиво. Обмежити доступ з чорний список доступу і список білий доступу. Користувач трек і охоронної діяльності.

What does “Cerber” mean?

Cerber is derived from the name Cerberus. In Greek and Roman mythology, Cerberus is a multi-headed dog with a serpent’s tail, a mane of snakes, and a lion’s claws. Nobody can bypass this angry dog. Now you can order WP Cerber to guard the entrance to your site too.