Patrick Schlesinger

<p>ReportedIP Hive Light protects WordPress logins against brute-force and password-spray attacks. It is intentionally focused: a per-IP attempt counter, a progressive block ladder, and an optional community lookup. No bloat, no dashboards, no upsell.</p>
<p><strong>Two operating modes</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Local Shield (default).</strong> Counts failed logins per IP and blocks attackers based on configurable thresholds. The plugin makes zero outbound network requests in this mode — all data stays on your server.</li>
<li><strong>Community Network (optional).</strong> When you enter a free Community Access Key from reportedip.de, the plugin additionally checks the source IP against the reportedip.de community database during login attempts and shares blocked IPs back to the community. Both calls are clearly disclosed in the settings UI.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>How it works</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><code>wp_login_failed</code> increments a per-IP counter using an atomic upsert (no race conditions under concurrent attacks).</li>
<li>When the counter exceeds your threshold, the IP is blocked for a duration drawn from a progressive ladder (5 min <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> 15 min <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> 30 min <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> 24 h <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> 48 h <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> 7 days).</li>
<li><code>wp_authenticate_user</code> short-circuits known-bad IPs before the WordPress core authentication runs.</li>
<li>Cache plugins (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, LiteSpeed) are honoured via the HTTP 403 status plus explicit <code>Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, max-age=0</code> and <code>Pragma: no-cache</code> headers on the block page.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Privacy</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>IP addresses are processed for the legitimate purpose of network security (GDPR Art. 6(1)(f)).</li>
<li>Usernames are stored only as a SHA-256 hash, salted with <code>wp_salt()</code>. Plain-text usernames are never persisted or transmitted.</li>
<li>In Local Shield mode, no data leaves your server. In Community Network mode, only the IP, hashed username, event type, and timestamp are sent — no domain, no contact details, no traffic data.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>For developers</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Filters: <code>reportedip_hive_is_whitelisted</code>, <code>reportedip_hive_get_client_ip</code>, <code>reportedip_hive_event_category_map</code>, <code>reportedip_hive_api_endpoint</code>.</li>
<li>Actions: <code>reportedip_hive_log</code>, <code>reportedip_hive_ip_blocked</code>, <code>reportedip_hive_report_queued</code>.</li>
</ul>
<p>A free Community Access Key is available at reportedip.de. The plugin works without one in Local Shield mode.</p>
<h3>External services</h3>
<p>This plugin can connect to the ReportedIP API at <code>https://reportedip.de</code>. All<br />
external requests are <strong>opt-in only</strong> — they are made exclusively when (a) a<br />
“Community Access Key” has been entered in the plugin settings and (b) the<br />
“Operation Mode” is set to “Community Network”. The default mode is “Local<br />
Shield”, which performs zero external requests.</p>
<h4>Endpoint 1: IP-reputation lookup</h4>
<ul>
<li>URL: <code>https://reportedip.de/wp-json/reportedip/v2/check?ip={ip}</code></li>
<li>HTTP verb: GET</li>
<li>Auth header: <code>X-Key: {your-access-key}</code></li>
<li>Trigger: a login attempt reaches <code>wp_authenticate_user</code></li>
<li>Timeout: 2 seconds (fail-open — login proceeds when the API does not respond)</li>
<li>Data sent: only the source IP address of the current login attempt</li>
<li>Data NOT sent: usernames, passwords, cookies, server identifiers, domain name</li>
</ul>
<h4>Endpoint 2: Blocked-IP report</h4>
<ul>
<li>URL: <code>https://reportedip.de/wp-json/reportedip/v2/report</code></li>
<li>HTTP verb: POST (JSON body)</li>
<li>Auth header: <code>X-Key: {your-access-key}</code></li>
<li>Trigger: a brute-force / spray threshold has been exceeded; the report is<br />
queued in the database and dispatched by a 15-minute cron job</li>
<li>Data sent: the offending IP, an integer category ID for the threat type,<br />
and a short human-readable comment (e.g. “5 failed logins in 15 minutes”)</li>
<li>Data NOT sent: usernames in plain text, passwords, full request bodies,<br />
domain name, contact information</li>
</ul>
<h4>Endpoint 3: Access-key verification</h4>
<ul>
<li>URL: <code>https://reportedip.de/wp-json/reportedip/v2/verify-key</code></li>
<li>HTTP verb: GET</li>
<li>Auth header: <code>X-Key: {entered-key}</code></li>
<li>Trigger: an administrator clicks “Test connection” in the plugin settings</li>
<li>Data sent: only the access key under verification</li>
</ul>
<h4>Hashing of submitted usernames</h4>
<p>When a brute-force attempt is detected and the failing username is recorded<br />
locally, the plugin stores <code>sha256( username + wp_salt() )</code> only — never the<br />
plain text. The salted hash is also what would be transmitted with a report,<br />
preventing recipients from recovering the original username.</p>
<h4>Service provider</h4>
<ul>
<li>Operator: Patrick Schlesinger, Germany</li>
<li>Service URL: <a href="https://reportedip.de" rel="nofollow ugc">reportedip.de</a></li>
<li>Legal notice (Impressum): <a href="https://reportedip.de/impressum/" rel="nofollow ugc">reportedip.de/impressum</a></li>
<li>Terms of use: <a href="https://reportedip.de/nutzungsbedingungen/" rel="nofollow ugc">reportedip.de/nutzungsbedingungen</a></li>
<li>Privacy policy: <a href="https://reportedip.de/datenschutzerklaerung/" rel="nofollow ugc">reportedip.de/datenschutzerklaerung</a></li>
<li>Source code: <a href="https://github.com/reportedip/reportedip-hive-light" rel="nofollow ugc">github.com/reportedip/reportedip-hive-light</a></li>
<li>Contact: <a href="mailto:1@reportedip.de" rel="nofollow ugc">1@reportedip.de</a></li>
</ul>
<p>You can switch back to Local Shield mode at any time in <em>Settings <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> ReportedIP<br />
Hive <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> Connection</em>. Doing so stops all external traffic immediately.</p>
<h3>Bundled assets</h3>
<p>This plugin ships every stylesheet and script it needs inside the plugin<br />
folder. <strong>No CDN, no Google Fonts, no remote stylesheets, no remote scripts<br />
are loaded</strong> — every asset URL begins with the plugin’s own<br />
    wp-content/plugins/reportedip-hive/ path.</p>
<p>The full list of bundled, locally-served assets:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>assets/css/design-system.css</code> — design tokens and components used on<br />
every plugin admin page.</li>
<li><code>assets/css/admin.css</code> — admin-page overrides on top of the design<br />
system.</li>
<li><code>assets/css/wizard.css</code> — standalone styles for the first-run setup<br />
wizard.</li>
<li><code>assets/js/admin.js</code> — handles tab switching and the AJAX<br />
“Test connection” button. Its only network call is <code>fetch()</code> against<br />
WordPress’ own <code>admin-ajax.php</code> (same origin); no third-party endpoint<br />
is contacted.</li>
<li>Inline SVG icons (the shield logo, the menu icon, and trust-badge<br />
glyphs) are emitted from PHP via <code>wp_kses()</code> with an explicit allow-list<br />
— no <code><img></code> element points at an external host.</li>
</ul>
<p>The complete list of files distributed in the WordPress.org ZIP is<br />
visible at <em>Plugins <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> Plugin File Editor</em> once the plugin is installed.</p>
<h3>Third-party services and licences</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>GPLv2 (or later) licence text</strong> is bundled with the plugin in the<br />
  LICENSE file at the plugin root and is also referenced from the<br />
plugin header (<code>License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html</code>).</li>
<li><strong>No third-party PHP, JavaScript, or CSS libraries are bundled</strong> with<br />
the plugin. There is no Composer <code>vendor/</code> directory, no jQuery copy,<br />
no minified third-party bundle. WordPress itself supplies any global<br />
scripts (<code>jquery</code>, <code>wp-list-table</code>, etc.) and the plugin only depends<br />
on WordPress core APIs.</li>
<li>The only external HTTP service the plugin can talk to is the<br />
  https://reportedip.de/wp-json/reportedip/v2/ API, and only when the<br />
administrator has explicitly enabled Community Network mode — see<br />
the “External services” section above for the full data flow.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Privacy</h3>
<ul>
<li>IP addresses are processed under GDPR Art. 6(1)(f) (legitimate interest in network security).</li>
<li>Usernames are stored as a salted SHA-256 hash; plain-text values are never persisted or transmitted.</li>
<li>In Local Shield mode (default) no data leaves your server.</li>
<li>In Community Network mode the data listed above is sent to reportedip.de.</li>
<li>Data retention is configurable in <em>Settings <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> Privacy</em>. The default attempt window is 15 minutes; the API queue retention is 7 days.</li>
<li>Activate “Delete all data on uninstall” in <em>Settings <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> Privacy</em> to remove all plugin tables and options when the plugin is deleted.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Disclaimer</h3>
<p>ReportedIP Hive Light is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, express or<br />
implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness<br />
for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. The author shall not be liable<br />
for any claim, damages, or other liability arising from the use of this<br />
software (this is the standard GPLv2-or-later disclaimer; see the LICENSE<br />
file for the full text).</p>
<p>The plugin provides defense-in-depth against brute-force and password-spray<br />
login attacks. It does <strong>not</strong> replace strong passwords, two-factor<br />
authentication, server-level firewalls, or web-application firewalls. No<br />
single security measure offers a 100 % guarantee against compromise. You<br />
remain responsible for the overall security posture of your WordPress site.</p>
<p>The optional Community Network mode forwards data to the third-party service<br />
operated at https://reportedip.de — see the “External services” section<br />
above for the full data flow. Site operators that enable Community Network<br />
mode are responsible for assessing the lawful basis under their applicable<br />
data-protection regime (in the EU, GDPR Art. 6(1)(f) — legitimate interest<br />
in network security — typically applies) and for updating their own privacy<br />
policy accordingly.</p>


ReportedIP Hive Light

Lightweight brute-force login protection with optional community-powered IP reputation checks.

wpazleen

Sabbir Sam

sambyte

wpxpertise

Function Deck

<p>Activity Guard is a free WordPress plugin that covers four things most plugins charge separately for: a complete activity log, an IP-based security firewall, a plugin vulnerability scanner, and WooCommerce abandoned cart analytics. Alerts go out in real time to Slack, Telegram, or email.</p>
<p>Most activity log plugins stop at logging. Most security plugins don’t touch WooCommerce. Activity Guard does all of it in one dashboard, so you’re not juggling four separate plugins or paying for features that should come standard.</p>
<span class="embed-youtube" style="text-align:center; display: block;"><iframe loading="lazy" class="youtube-player" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KXT0QcnFLOg?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent" allowfullscreen="true" style="border:0;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox"></iframe></span>
<p><a href="https://wpazleen.com/notifier-to-slack/" rel="nofollow ugc">Activity Guard Website</a> | <a href="https://wpazleen.com/docs/" rel="nofollow ugc">Documentation</a> | <a href="https://wpazleen.com/support/" rel="nofollow ugc">Pro Support</a></p>
<h3>What Makes Activity Guard Different</h3>
<p>Other free activity log plugins make you upgrade for Slack alerts, security scanning, or WooCommerce tracking. Activity Guard ships all of it for free, including Telegram notifications, IP firewall with emergency session shutdown, plugin CVE scanning, and WooCommerce incomplete-order analytics.</p>
<p>No other free plugin on WordPress.org combines these four in one place:</p>
<ul>
<li>Complete activity log with charts and visual summaries</li>
<li>IP firewall with manual blocking, CIDR ranges, and conditional rules</li>
<li>Plugin vulnerability scanner cross-referencing NVD, WPVulnerability.net, and the WPAzleen private API</li>
<li>WooCommerce analytics including abandoned cart recovery rate tracking</li>
</ul>
<h3>WordPress Activity Log</h3>
<p>Activity Guard records every meaningful change on your site, including the IP address, username, timestamp, and the exact change made. The log covers:</p>
<ul>
<li>User logins, logouts, and failed login attempts</li>
<li>User registrations, role changes, and profile edits</li>
<li>Pages, posts, and custom post types: create, edit, delete, status changes</li>
<li>Plugin and theme activations, deactivations, updates, and deletions</li>
<li>WordPress core settings and configuration changes</li>
<li>Menu, widget, and sidebar modifications</li>
<li>Email delivery tracking (email log)</li>
<li>Form submissions from Contact Form 7, SimpleForm, and others</li>
<li>Admin settings changes and debug log events</li>
<li>Cron job scheduling and background process tracking</li>
<li>Script modification and file change detection</li>
<li>Visitor traffic monitoring with an on/off toggle</li>
</ul>
<p>Visual charts summarize your audit log at a glance. No need to scroll through raw log tables to understand what’s happening on your site.</p>
<h3>Security Firewall and IP Blocking</h3>
<p>Activity Guard actively blocks threats rather than just recording them after the fact.</p>
<ul>
<li>IP blocking by manual entry, CIDR range, or conditional rule</li>
<li>Emergency shutdown: force-logout every active session on your site with one click</li>
<li>Cloudflare Turnstile login protection against bots and brute force attacks</li>
<li>Login rate limiting to stop credential-stuffing</li>
<li>Bot detection and automatic IP blocking</li>
<li>Restrict or fully disable XML-RPC access</li>
<li>Core file integrity scanner to detect unauthorized file changes</li>
<li>File integrity monitoring across plugins and themes</li>
<li>Block TOR network access</li>
<li>Block vulnerability scanner user agents</li>
<li>HTTP security headers: custom, logged, and enforced</li>
<li>WordPress version hiding</li>
<li>404 error tracking and suspicious HTTP request alerts</li>
<li>Admin dashboard visitor tracking</li>
<li>Cron job failure and site downtime monitoring</li>
</ul>
<p>The Emergency Shutdown feature is specific to Activity Guard: one click and every logged-in session on your site ends immediately. Useful when you detect a breach in progress and need everyone out now.</p>
<h3>Plugin Vulnerability Scanner</h3>
<p>Activity Guard scans every installed plugin and theme against multiple vulnerability databases before problems develop:</p>
<ul>
<li>Detect plugins with known CVEs across NVD, WPVulnerability.net, and the WPAzleen private API</li>
<li>Flag outdated plugins not compatible with your WordPress version</li>
<li>Identify abandoned plugins (not updated in over a year)</li>
<li>Warn about plugins with low install counts or poor ratings</li>
</ul>
<p>No other free activity log plugin on WordPress.org includes a built-in multi-database vulnerability scanner.</p>
<h3>WooCommerce Activity Log and Analytics</h3>
<p>Activity Guard logs every WooCommerce event and adds analytics built specifically for store owners.</p>
<p>Order tracking covers status changes, payments, refunds, and cancellations. You also get stock level changes and low-stock events, coupon creation and usage, product pricing edits, billing and shipping address updates, customer registration changes, and real-time shipping status updates.</p>
<p>The abandoned cart and incomplete-order analytics go further than basic logging. The dashboard shows checkout drop-off rates, recovery potential, recovery rate, and how customers interact with their carts before leaving. This helps you understand where revenue is being lost, not just that it was lost.</p>
<p>WooCommerce abandoned cart analytics with recovery rate tracking is included free. No competing free activity log plugin on WordPress.org provides this.</p>
<h3>Slack and Telegram Notifications</h3>
<p>Activity Guard sends alerts the moment a critical event occurs, across four channels:</p>
<ul>
<li>Slack: route alerts to any channel, tag specific users or groups with @mentions</li>
<li>Telegram: real-time activity and security alerts direct to your Telegram chat</li>
<li>Email: configurable per event type</li>
<li>Admin dashboard: in-panel notification view</li>
</ul>
<p>Events that trigger alerts include core file changes, plugin and theme updates (with the username that triggered the update), WooCommerce orders, payments, coupon usage, incomplete order follow-ups, product edits, stock changes, login and registration events, page and post changes, form submissions, and admin settings changes. A daily digest and weekly plugin download summary are also available.</p>
<p>You can schedule notifications for specific times and control exactly which events send alerts.</p>
<h3>Admin and Developer Tools</h3>
<ul>
<li>Maintenance mode toggle from the dashboard</li>
<li>Menu and widget change tracking</li>
<li>Plugin and theme activation and deactivation logs</li>
<li>Script modification detection</li>
<li>HTTP security header change logging</li>
<li>Debug log and fatal error detection</li>
<li>Email log: full delivery history for all outgoing WordPress emails</li>
<li>Contact Form 7 and SimpleForm integration alerts</li>
</ul>
<h3>Who Uses Activity Guard</h3>
<p>WooCommerce store owners use it to track every order, coupon, product change, and shipping event, and to recover revenue with abandoned cart analytics. Site administrators use it to know exactly who changed what, instantly log out suspicious users, and maintain a clean audit trail. Agencies and developers use it to monitor plugin updates, configuration changes, fatal errors, and debug logs across client sites. Security-focused admins use it to block IPs, scan for CVEs, monitor file integrity, and trigger emergency shutdowns. Multi-author sites use it to hold contributors accountable with full user activity logging and role-change tracking.</p>
<p>Join us: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wpazleens" rel="nofollow ugc">Facebook</a> | <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqR5SPvn6N2ZBq7AyYKfEnA" rel="nofollow ugc">YouTube</a> | <a href="https://x.com/wpazleen" rel="nofollow ugc">X / Twitter</a></p>
<h3>External Services</h3>
<h4>Slack Webhook Integration</h4>
<p>Activity Guard sends notifications to your Slack workspace using a Slack incoming webhook URL that you provide. To set one up:</p>
<ol>
<li>Create a Slack app or use an existing one</li>
<li>Enable Incoming Webhooks in the app settings</li>
<li>Add a webhook to your workspace</li>
<li>Paste the webhook URL into Activity Guard settings</li>
</ol>
<h4>Cloudflare Turnstile</h4>
<p>Activity Guard uses <a href="https://www.cloudflare.com/application-services/products/turnstile/" rel="nofollow ugc">Cloudflare Turnstile</a> for login bot protection. See Cloudflare’s <a href="https://www.cloudflare.com/application-services/products/turnstile/" rel="nofollow ugc">privacy policy</a> for details.</p>
<h4>Plugin Vulnerability Scanner – Data Sources</h4>
<ul>
<li>WordPress.org Plugin API: retrieves plugin metadata including latest version, last updated date, rating, and active install count. <a href="https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/" rel="ugc">Privacy Policy</a></li>
<li>WPAzleen API: private endpoint for known vulnerabilities by plugin and version. No sensitive data is transmitted. <a href="https://wpazleen.com/privacy-policy/" rel="nofollow ugc">Privacy Policy</a></li>
<li>WPVulnerability.net: public API for CVE-based vulnerability data. <a href="https://www.wpvulnerability.com/privacy/" rel="nofollow ugc">Privacy Policy</a></li>
<li>National Vulnerability Database (NVD): official CVE data from NIST. <a href="https://www.nist.gov/oism/site-privacy" rel="nofollow ugc">Privacy Policy</a></li>
</ul>
<p>All scans run locally using public metadata and vulnerability feeds. Activity Guard does not collect, store, or transmit any personal information during scans.</p>
<h4>Freemius</h4>
<p>Activity Guard uses the <a href="https://freemius.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Freemius</a> SDK for optional telemetry. No data is collected by default. Data collection only starts after you explicitly confirm in the admin notice. See the <a href="https://freemius.com/privacy/" rel="nofollow ugc">Freemius FAQ</a> for details.</p>
<h4>WPAzleen Settings API</h4>
<p>Loads display settings for the Pro upgrade modal in the plugin admin area.</p>
<p><a href="https://wpazleen.com/privacy-policy/" rel="nofollow ugc">WPAzleen Privacy Policy</a></p>
<h3>Source Code</h3>
<p>The source files for all compiled/minified JavaScript and CSS in this plugin are publicly available at:</p>
<p>https://github.com/wpazleen/activity-guard</p>
<p>Build instructions:</p>
<ol>
<li>Clone the repository or direct visit the src directory.</li>
<li>Run <code>npm install</code> in the root to install dependencies.</li>
<li>Run <code>npm run build</code> to compile the JavaScript and CSS assets.</li>
<li>The compiled files are output to <code>build/</code>.</li>
</ol>


Activity Guard – Security Scanner, Activity Log with IP blocking


Excellent plugin and easy to setup thanks for the video.


Original idea and super useful plugin!

WordPress activity log with IP blocking, plugin vulnerability scanner, WooCommerce abandoned cart analytics, and free Slack and Telegram alerts.

ReportedIP Hive Light vs Activity Guard – Security Scanner, Activity Log with IP blocking