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 :)

Contents

• About 8G Firewall
• Reporting Bugs
• Download 8G Firewall
• License & Disclaimer
• Show Support
• 8G Notes

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 below..

• Only use 7G or 8G, not both
• 8G is modular: each section can be removed/added as desired
• There is an addon to block AI bots: Ultimate Block List to Stop AI Bots »
• 8G is designed to work flawlessly on any website, not just WordPress
• 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
• If using the “WebP Express” plugin, remove env from Request URI rules
• To enable “phpinfo() WP” plugin, remove phpinfo from Query String rules
• To enable the “Ahrefs” bot, remove ahrefs from User Agent rules
• Also note that 8G blocks the W3 Validator (I am unable to figure out why)

WordPress

If you need exact-match search results (i.e., surrounding search terms with quotation marks) when attaching items from the Media Library to a post, make the following edit. Locate this line:

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (;|<|>|\'|\"|\)|%0a|%0d|%22|%27|%3c|%3e|%00)(.*)...

And remove %22|, so the line becomes:

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (;|<|>|\'|\"|\)|%0a|%0d|%27|%3c|%3e|%00)(.*)...

Joomla

If you use Joomla plugin JCE Pro, make the following edit. Locate this line:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (/)(filemanager|htdocs|httpdocs...

And remove filemanager|, so the line becomes:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (/)(htdocs|httpdocs...

Other 8G-related notes will be added here..

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Web Developer. Book Author. Secretly Important.