Marc Armengou

Security Hardener applies WordPress security best practices based on the <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/advanced-administration/security/hardening/" rel="nofollow ugc">WordPress Advanced Administration / Security / Hardening</a> documentation and widely accepted hardening measures. It uses WordPress core functions and follows best practices without modifying core files.
<h4>Key Features</h4>
File Security: 
* Disable file editor in WordPress admin 
* Optionally disable all file modifications (blocks updates – use with caution)
XML-RPC Protection: 
* Disable XML-RPC completely (enabled by default) 
* Remove pingback methods when XML-RPC is enabled
Pingback Protection: 
* Disable self-pingbacks 
* Remove X-Pingback header 
* Block incoming pingbacks
User Enumeration Protection: 
* Block <code>/?author=N</code> queries (returns 404) 
* Secure REST API user endpoints (require authentication) 
* Remove users from XML sitemaps 
* Prevent canonical redirects that expose usernames 
* Optionally block author feed pages (<code>/author/username/feed/</code>)
Login Security: 
* Generic error messages (no username/password hints) 
* Login honeypot — silently blocks bots before any credential check 
* IP-based rate limiting with configurable thresholds 
* Security event logging (last 100 events) 
* Automatic blocking after failed attempts
Security Headers: 
* <code>X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN</code> (clickjacking protection) 
* <code>X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff</code> (MIME sniffing protection) 
* <code>Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin</code> 
* <code>Permissions-Policy</code> (restricts geolocation, microphone, camera) 
* Optional HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) for HTTPS sites — max-age set to 1 year
Additional Hardening: 
* Hide WordPress version (meta generator tag and asset query strings) 
* Remove obsolete wp_head items (RSD, WLW manifest, shortlink, emoji scripts) 
* Security event logging system 
* Optionally disable Application Passwords for API authentication
<blockquote>
⚠️ Important: Always test security settings in a staging environment first. Some features may affect third-party integrations or plugins.
</blockquote>
Privacy: This plugin does not send data to external services and does not create custom database tables. It stores plugin settings and a security event log in the WordPress options table, and uses transients for temporary login attempt tracking. All data is preserved on uninstall by default and only deleted if the “Delete all data on uninstall” option is explicitly enabled.

Security Hardener

Basic hardening: secure headers, login honeypot, user enumeration blocking, generic login errors, rate limiting, and more.

WP Chill

Silkalns

Cristian Raiber

A very useful plugin for everyone using WordPress. Adds reCaptcha security to the WordPress login form, register form and comment form. This plugin could help your blog get rid of a lot of spam comments or brute-force attacks.
Nothing gets passed it if the reCaptcha doesn’t validate.
A few notes about the plugin:
<ul>
<li>Supports audio or image captcha types</li>
<li>Can generate the reCaptcha image / audio type in a number of predefined languages</li>
<li>Adds reCaptcha protection to the WordPress login form</li>
<li>Adds reCaptcha protection to the WordPress register form</li>
<li>Adds reCaptcha protection to the WordPress comment form</li>
<li>Adds reCaptcha protection to the WordPress recover password form</li>
</ul>

Uber reCaptcha

This plugin adds the reCaptcha form to the WordPress login form, recover password form, register form and comment form.

Security Hardener vs Uber reCaptcha