Fail2WP

Security plugin for WordPress with support for fail2ban. Tested with WordPress 5.5+ and PHP 7.4/8.1.x.

Description

This WordPress plugin provides security functionality and integration with Fail2ban and Cloudflare.

The WordPress slug is fail2wp.

The plugin is also available on wordpress.org

Basic security functionality includes:

• Disabling login with username (require e-mail address)
• Preventing user enumeration (?author=nnn)
• Less detailed error messages on login failures
• Minimum username length
• Blocking specific usernames from being used to register new users
• Requiring e-mail address matching for new user registrations
• Warning about new user role setting
• Blocking of portions or all of WordPress REST API
• Disabling of RSS and Atom feeds
• Removal of "Generator" information from HTML and feeds
• Detection of Cloudflare IP addresses for logging of actual IP addresses
• Blocking/Allowing logins from IP addresses, IP ranges, and/or hostnames
• Partially or fully disable XMLRPC access

The plugin also plays nicely with Fail2ban, which is an advanced way of blocking IP addresses dynamically upon suspicious behavior.

Other notes

• This plugin may work with earlier versions of WordPress
• This plugin has been tested with WordPress 5.5+ and 6.5.x at the time of this writing
• This plugin has been tested with PHP 7.2, 7.4, and 8.1.20 at the time of this writing
• This plugin optionally makes use of mb_ PHP functions
• This plugin may create entries in your PHP error log (if active)
• This plugin contains no Javascript
• This plugin contains no tracking code and does not store any information about users

Installation

This section describes how to install the plugin and get it working.

1. Upload the fail2wp folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory (or install it from the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress)
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress
3. Configure the basic settings

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the plugin locale aware

Fail2WP uses standard WordPress functionality to handle localization/locale. The native language localization of the plugin is English. It has been translated to Swedish by the author.

All logging to system logs (i.e. php.log or auth.log) is done in English.

Are there any incompatibilities

This is a hard question to answer. There are no known incompatibilities.

How do I make this work with Fail2ban

1. Copy the file fail2wp.conf to /etc/fail2ban/filter.d
2. Create an entry in /etc/fail2ban/jail.local as per the instructions in fail2wp.conf
3. In the plugin configuration, enable logging of Unsuccessful logins and possibly other triggers
4. Re-start Fail2ban

Changelog

1.2.1

• Verified with WordPress 6.5.2
• Updated "About" information

1.2.0

• Verified with WordPress 6.2.2 and PHP 8.1.20
• Added support for allow/deny list for login (IP address, hostname with wildcard support)
• Added entry in fail2wp.conf example fail2ban configuration for allow/deny login
• Corrected typo in fail2wp.conf example fail2ban configuration, CHECK AGAINST YOURS!
• Added support for HTTP_X_REAL_IP (X-Real-IP) header to "decode" actual remote IP address
• Added support for partially or fully disabling XMLRPC
• Added entry in fail2wp.conf example fail2ban configuration for XMLRPC access attempts

1.1.1

• Verified for WordPress 5.8

1.1.0

• Added minimum username length
• Added blocking of specific usernames (user registration)
• Added requiring e-mail address matching setting
• Added warning about new user role setting
• Added blocking of portions or all of WordPress REST API
• Added setting to disable RSS and Atom feeds
• Added setting to remove "Generator" information from HTML and feeds
• Minor corrections and general improvements

1.0.0

• Initial release

Upgrade Notice

1.2.1

• Install the new version, no changes have been made to settings.

1.2.0

• Install the new version and walk through the settings.
• Check your fail2ban configuration against the supplied sample fail2wp.conf!

1.1.1

• Install the new version, no changes have been made to settings.

1.1.0

• Install the new version and walk through the settings.

1.0.0

• Initial release

License

Please see LICENSE for a full copy of GPLv2

Copyright (C) 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Joaquim Homrighausen; all rights reserved.

This file is part of Fail2WP. Fail2WP is free software.

You may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2, as published by the Free Software Foundation.

Fail2WP is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with the Fail2WP package. If not, write to:

The Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.

Credits

The Fail2WP WordPress Plugin was written by Joaquim Homrighausen while converting ☕ into code.

Fail2WP is sponsored by WebbPlatsen i Sverige AB, Stockholm, 🇸🇪

Commercial support and customizations for this plugin is available from WebbPlatsen i Sverige AB in Stockholm, 🇸🇪

If you find this plugin useful, the author is happy to receive a donation, good review, or just a kind word.

If there is something you feel to be missing from this plugin, or if you have found a problem with the code or a feature, please do not hesitate to reach out to support@webbplatsen.se.

This plugin can also be downloaded from code.webbplatsen.net and WordPress.org

More detailed documentation is available at code.webbplatsen.net/documentation/fail2wp/

Kudos to Vincent Le Moign and Webalys and Thomas Lutz

External references

These links are not here for any sort of endorsement or marketing, they're purely for informational purposes.

• me; 🐒 https://joho.se and https://github.com/joho1968
• WebbPlatsen; https://webbplatsen.se and https://code.webbplatsen.net