8G Firewall
After more than a year of beta testing, 8G Firewall is ready for use on production sites. So you can benefit from the powerful protection provided by the latest evolution of the nG Firewall (aka nG Blacklist). The 8G Firewall offers lightweight, server-level protection against a wide range of malicious requests, bad bots, automated attacks, spam, and many other types of threats and nonsense. 8G is a lightweight (only 17KB) strong firewall that provides site security and peace of mind. Plus, 8G is open source and 100% free for everyone :)
SetEnvIf instead of mod_rewrite. Learn more and download at GitHub.Contents
About 8G Firewall
The 8G Firewall is a carefully crafted set of security rules for Apache and Nginx servers. It can be applied via your site’s public root .htaccess file, or added via server configuration. Once added, 8G provides powerful server-level protection against a wide range of malicious requests, bad bots, automated attacks, spam, and many other types of threats and nonsense. It’s a lightweight (only 17KB) strong firewall that improves site security and peace of mind.
8G Firewall builds on 7G, optimizing scope with performance while minimizing false positives. Learn more about nG-series firewall, including 8G and all the details:
Reporting Bugs
As of version 1.3, 8G is out of beta and ready for production sites. Any bugs (false positives) may be reported via my contact form. Or if you have any questions or non-bug-related feedback, you are welcome to leave a comment on this post. Thank you :)
Download 8G Firewall
By downloading 8G, you agree to the terms set forth in the License and Disclaimer. You will find copy of the 8G changelog included in the zip download file. Check out the nG homepage for install steps and complete information.
License & Disclaimer
8G Firewall is open source and 100% free for all. The only requirement is that the following credit lines are included when using 8G (or any of its parts).
# 8G FIREWALL
# https://perishablepress.com/8g-firewall/Other than that, it’s all yours!
Disclaimer
The 8G Firewall is provided “as-is”, with the intention of helping people protect their sites against bad requests and other malicious activity. The code is open and free to use and modify as long as the first two credit lines remain intact. By using this code you assume all risk and responsibility for anything that happens. So use wisely, test thoroughly, and enjoy the benefits of my work :)
Show support
I spend countless hours developing the nG Firewall. I share it freely and openly with the hope that it will help make the Web a more secure place for everyone.
If you benefit from my work with nG Firewall and would like to show support, consider buying one of my books, such as .htaccess made easy. You’ll get a complete guide to .htaccess, exclusive forum access, and a ton of awesome techniques for configuring, optimizing, and securing your site.
Of course, tweets, likes, links, and shares are super helpful and very much appreciated. Your generous support allows me to continue developing the nG Firewall and other awesome resources for the community. Thank you kindly :)
8G Notes
Any 8G-related notes will be added/updated here..
- Only use 7G or 8G, not both
- 8G is modular: each section can be removed/added as desired
- 8G is designed to work flawlessly with WordPress or any other non-WP site
- 8G adds new “HTTP COOKIE” rules
- Please report any strings or user agents that should not be blocked
- Always test well before going live and report any bugs or issues
- Joomla sites: remove “administrator” from Request URI rules
- Other 8G-related notes will be added here..
132 responses to “8G Firewall”
Hey Jeff, ever consider adding http version? http 1.X is pretty much obsolete for current browsers, even 2 and is another easy way to filter out the trash.
It’s been included in previous versions and tutorials, just too many false positives though for general/public use.
Just out of interest… what is the reason that the user agents are all blocked with a single rule. Can’t they all be contained in one rule?
I mean these lines. There are several of them, all matching the same base, blocking user agents. But why all of them individually? So that the rule doesn’t get too long?
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (linkscan…
Correct, it’s to keep lines short and manageable, organized. Some environments have problems parsing long lines, especially when regex is involved. You’ll notice the same is true for other sections, like Query String and Request URI.
There is a problem.
When I go to the plugin settings page (/wp-admin/admin.php?page=Wordfence) the request is blocked.
The problem is in the line:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (/)((boot)?_?admin(er|istrator|s)?(_events)?)(\.php) [NC,OR]
I commented it out. What can be done?
Yeah that line needs re-worked. Until then, just leave commented out.
Thanks
The next update of 8G (beta) will resolve the issue. Thank you for reporting, Alex.
problem with loading js, css (for plugin) in admin panel
console (Error):
The problem is in the line:
I commented it out
Got it on the list, thanks Alex.
Hi Jeff, Thanks for the 8G Firewall. One issue I have found is AHREFS’ bot is getting blocked. I need to whitelist their bot. How do I do this and how do I whitelist other benign bots?
Just remove their name/string from the User Agents section should do the trick. Also when it comes to bots, “benign” is highly relative (imo).
This line block Elementor info page in wp admin
Thanks for reporting, will get it fixed next update.
Rank Math not working. Problem in string:
Thanks, will get it fixed up. For now just comment out that line to continue testing remaining rules.
I have just installed 8g replacing the 7g I was using previously on my phpBB 3.3.10 test board. So far no errors have made them selves known to me and the board is much ‘snappier’ than it was.
I was thinking that it would be nice to have an “addon” part of 8G that blocks all bad bots looking for sites that do NOT use woocommerce, NOT use wordpress, NOT use PHP, not whatever framework or plugin, etc. that people can optionally install based on their site design… not unlike the current ADD-ON of 7G Firewall…
It would be cool if OpenAI ChatGPT user agents were blocked.
I’ve not seen much activity from “OpenAI” or “ChatGPT” as user agents.. what specifically are you noticing?
Regarding HTTP version as mentioned earlier in the comments. Unfortunately, there is an issue with that. WordPress operates on 1.0 or 1.1 and for now you can’t change that. Entire site gets blocked if you require HTTP/2 and higher.
https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53513
Yeah I’ve seen a lot of posts pushing HTTP version whitelisting, but it’s just a bad idea in general. There may be specific cases where it can help, but as you say WordPress isn’t one of them.
Hi, is there any test unit I can run all possible attacks that it would stop? If not, how can I know it works?
Thanks!
Jaro
No units tests (that I know of), but an easy way to test is to pick any pattern/string from the URI Requests or Query String rules. Then try making a request using your browser’s address bar, or any HTTP/request app/extension will work too. For example, one of the URI request patterns is
,,,(three commas), so you can enter in the address bar:https://example.com/some/path/whatever/,,,. If the result is 403 Forbidden, the firewall is working. You can test with as many patterns as needed until confident things are working properly.Wonderful, awesome work! Can we expect a NGINX version soon?
Nginx version in the works, no timeline in place just yet.
Hi there, just to let you know, there are a couple user-agents strings I’m blocking on my own and you could add to your list:
AlphaBot
CensysInspect
ImagesiftBot
MauiBot
Mozlila
seoscanners.net
My pleasure. Hope it helps.
Thanks I appreciate the suggestions, will take a look for adding to 8G User Agent rules.