Marc Armengou

PlugSeal gives administrators granular control over what each active plugin is allowed to do, inspired by Android app permissions and Flatseal for Flatpak. Each active plugin is listed in the settings page. For each plugin, administrators can allow or deny individual permissions with immediate effect. All permissions are allowed by default, so no existing functionality is broken until an administrator explicitly restricts it.
Permissions covered:
<ul>
<li><code>db:read</code> / <code>db:write</code> — database queries via $wpdb</li>
<li><code>db:read:users</code> / <code>db:write:users</code> — read and write access to user data (also covers wp_delete_user and wp_update_user)</li>
<li><code>http:outbound</code> — outbound HTTP requests via the WordPress HTTP API</li>
<li><code>options:read</code> / <code>options:write</code> — WordPress options via get_option / update_option (see limitations)</li>
<li><code>email:send</code> — sending email via wp_mail()</li>
<li><code>cron:write</code> — scheduling events via wp_schedule_event()</li>
<li><code>transients:write</code> — writing transients via set_transient()</li>
<li><code>users:create</code> — creating users via wp_create_user() (deletes are covered by db:write:users)</li>
<li><code>rest:register</code> — registering REST API endpoints via register_rest_route()</li>
<li><code>shortcode:register</code> — registering shortcodes via add_shortcode()</li>
<li><code>rewrite:register</code> — registering rewrite rules via add_rewrite_rule()</li>
<li><code>admin:menu</code> — adding entries to the admin menu and submenus</li>
<li><code>dashboard:widget</code> — adding dashboard widgets via wp_add_dashboard_widget()</li>
<li><code>hooks:frontend</code> — hooking into frontend hooks (wp_head, wp_footer, the_content, wp_enqueue_scripts…)</li>
<li><code>hooks:admin</code> — hooking into admin hooks (admin_head, admin_notices, admin_enqueue_scripts…)</li>
<li><code>hooks:auth</code> — hooking into authentication hooks (wp_login, wp_logout, user_register, authenticate…)</li>
<li><code>hooks:content</code> — hooking into content hooks (save_post, delete_post, pre_get_posts, wp_handle_upload…)</li>
<li><code>hooks:lifecycle</code> — hooking into plugin and theme lifecycle hooks (activated_plugin, deactivated_plugin, switch_theme…)</li>
</ul>
Honest limitations:
This plugin intercepts official WordPress APIs by identifying the calling plugin via the PHP call stack. It cannot intercept calls made by WordPress core on behalf of a plugin — for example, when WordPress processes a settings form via <code>options.php</code>, the call stack contains core files rather than the plugin files.
Specific limitations:
<ul>
<li><code>options:read</code> / <code>options:write</code> — work when a plugin calls these APIs directly from its own code (hooks, AJAX, cron). Do not block standard WordPress settings forms processed by <code>options.php</code>.</li>
<li>Filesystem access (<code>file_get_contents</code>, <code>fopen</code>, etc.) is not intercepted.</li>
<li>Direct <code>mysqli</code> connections, <code>eval()</code>, and raw PHP file functions bypass all interceptors.</li>
<li><code>wp_update_user()</code> and <code>wp_delete_user()</code> are covered by <code>db:write:users</code> since they write directly to the users table.</li>
<li><code>admin_init</code> is intentionally excluded from <code>hooks:admin</code> as it is too critical to block safely.</li>
</ul>

PlugSeal

Control what each active plugin is allowed to do. Allow or deny specific permissions per plugin, with immediate effect.

Abhishek Sinha

Abhishek Site Cleanup Controls gives developers and site owners fine-grained control over 35+ WordPress features that are often unnecessary. Each feature has a simple on/off toggle, organised into five logical groups inside Settings -> Site Cleanup Controls.
No features are enabled by default — activate only what you need.
<h4>Security</h4>
<ul>
<li>User Enumeration — Block ?author=N redirect attacks that expose usernames.</li>
<li>Author Archives — Return 404 for author archive pages.</li>
<li>XML-RPC + Pingback — Fully disable the XML-RPC endpoint and remove the X-Pingback header.</li>
<li>Plugin and Theme Editor — Set DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT to prevent in-admin file editing.</li>
<li>Application Passwords — Disable the Application Passwords feature.</li>
<li>REST API — Restrict REST API access to authenticated users only.</li>
<li>Right Click — Disable the browser context menu on the frontend.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Performance</h4>
<ul>
<li>Emojis — Remove all emoji scripts, styles, and DNS prefetch hints.</li>
<li>Embed Objects — Disable WordPress oEmbed and embed scripts.</li>
<li>Dashicons — Prevent Dashicons from loading for non-logged-in visitors.</li>
<li>Heartbeat — Deregister the Heartbeat API script.</li>
<li>Block Library CSS — Remove wp-block-library and global-styles stylesheets on the frontend.</li>
<li>Version Var (?ver=) — Strip ?ver= query strings from enqueued asset URLs.</li>
<li>PDF Thumbnails — Skip thumbnail generation for uploaded PDF files.</li>
<li>oEmbed — Remove oEmbed discovery links and disable autoembed.</li>
<li>Remote Block Patterns — Stop WordPress fetching patterns from api.wordpress.org.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Head Cleanup</h4>
<ul>
<li>Generator Meta Tag — Remove the WordPress version meta tag from head.</li>
<li>WLW Manifest — Remove the Windows Live Writer manifest link.</li>
<li>Really Simple Discovery (RSD) — Remove the RSD link tag.</li>
<li>Short Link — Remove the shortlink tag and HTTP header.</li>
<li>Adjacent Posts Links — Remove prev/next link tags from single post heads.</li>
<li>RSS Feeds — Redirect all feed URLs to the homepage.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Admin Cleanup</h4>
<ul>
<li>capital_P_dangit — Remove WordPress forced capitalisation filter.</li>
<li>Screen Options and Help Tabs — Hide Screen Options and Help dropdowns.</li>
<li>Howdy to Welcome — Replace “Howdy,” with “Welcome,” in the admin bar.</li>
<li>Navigation Items in Admin Bar — Remove WP logo, site name, updates, and comments.</li>
<li>Clean Dashboard — Remove all default dashboard widgets.</li>
<li>Privacy Tools — Hide Export/Erase Personal Data from the Tools menu.</li>
<li>Site Health Page — Hide Site Health from the Tools menu.</li>
<li>WP Login Logo and Favicon — Hide the WordPress logo on the login page.</li>
<li>Admin Email Verification Prompt — Disable the admin email confirm interstitial.</li>
<li>Empty Trash (1 week) — Shorten automatic trash-emptying from 30 days to 7 days.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Content</h4>
<ul>
<li>Comments — Disable comments sitewide.</li>
<li>Post Revisions — Disable revision storage.</li>
<li>Search — Redirect all search queries to the homepage.</li>
</ul>
<h4>WordPress Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Thumbnails / Featured Images — Remove post thumbnail support.</li>
<li>Widgets — Disable all widgets and sidebars.</li>
<li>Navigation Menus — Remove nav menu theme support.</li>
<li>Tags — Unregister tags from posts.</li>
<li>Categories — Unregister categories from posts.</li>
<li>Post Formats — Remove post format theme support.</li>
<li>Custom Fields — Remove custom fields meta box from editor.</li>
<li>Excerpts — Remove excerpt support from posts and pages.</li>
<li>Trackbacks — Remove trackback support from posts.</li>
<li>Attachment Pages — Redirect attachment URLs to the file directly.</li>
<li>Automatic Updates — Disable automatic core, plugin, and theme updates.</li>
<li>Self Pings — Stop WordPress pinging your own site.</li>
<li>jQuery Migrate — Remove jQuery Migrate script on the frontend.</li>
</ul>

Abhishek Site Cleanup Controls

Selectively disable WordPress features to improve performance, security, and cleanliness. Toggle each feature individually from a single settings page …

PlugSeal vs Abhishek Site Cleanup Controls