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Restricted Site Access

By Jake Goldman, 10up, Oomph

Description

Limit access your site to visitors who are logged in or accessing the site from a set of specified IP addresses. Send restricted visitors to the log in page, redirect them, or display a message or page. A great solution for Extranets, publicly hosted Intranets, or parallel development / staging sites.

Adds a number of new configuration options to the Reading settings panel as well as the Network Settings panel in multisite. From these panels you can:

  • Enable or disable site restriction
  • Change the restriction behavior: send to login, redirect, display a message, display a page
  • Add IP addresses to an unrestricted list, including ranges
  • Quickly add your current IP to the unrestricted list
  • Customize the redirect location, including an option to send them to the same requested path and set the HTTP status code for SEO friendliness
  • Define a simple message to show restricted visitors, or select a page to show them – great for “coming soon” teasers!

Screenshots

  • Screenshot of settings panel with simple Restricted Site Access option (send to login page).
  • Screenshot of settings panel with restriction message option enabled
  • Plenty of inline help! Looks and behaves like native WordPress help.

Installation

  1. Install easily with the WordPress plugin control panel or manually download the plugin and upload the extracted folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
  3. Configure the plugin by going to the “Reading” menu (WP3.5+) or “Privacy” (earlier versions) under “Settings”.

FAQ

Where do I change the restriction settings?

Restricted Site Access settings are added to the Reading page, with WordPress’s built in site privacy options. (It was moved there from a separate Privacy settings page in 3.5.)

It’s not working! My site is wide open!

Most commonly, Restricted Site Access is not compatible with some page caching solutions. While the plugin hooks in as early as it can to check visitor permissions, its important to understand that some page caching plugins generate static output that prevents plugins like Restricted Site Access from ever checking individual visitors.

To the extent that sites blocked by this plugin should not need to concern themselves with high scale front end performance, we strongly recommend disabling any page caching solutions while restricting access to your site. Keep in mind that most page caching plugins do not cache the “logged in” experience, anyhow. Also note that the plugin is fully compatible with other caching layers, like the WordPress object cache.

How do I allow access to specific pages or parts of my site?

Developers can use the restricted_site_access_is_restricted filter to override normal restriction behavior. Note that restriction checks happen before WordPress executes any queries; it passes the query request from the global $wp variable so developers can investigate what the visitor is trying to load.

For instance, to unblock an RSS feed, place the following PHP code in the theme’s functions.php file or in a simple plug-in:

add_filter( 'restricted_site_access_is_restricted', 'my_rsa_feed_override’, 10, 2 );

function my_rsa_feed_override( $is_restricted, $wp ) {
    // check query variables to see if this is the feed
    if ( ! empty( $wp->query_vars['feed'] ) ) {
        $is_restricted = false;
    }
    return $is_restricted;
}

How secure is this plug-in?

Visitors that are not logged in or allowed by IP address will not be able to browse your site (though be cautious of page caching plugin incompatibilities, mentioned above). Restricted Site Access does not block access to your, so direct links to files in your media and uploads folder (for instance) are not blocked. It is also important to remember that IP addresses can be spoofed. Because Restricted Site Access runs as a plug-in, it is subject to any other vulnerabilities present on your site.

Restricted Site Access is not meant to be a top secret data safe, but simply a reliable and convenient way to handle unwanted visitors.

I received a warning about page caching. What does it mean?

Page caching plugins often hook into WordPress to quickly serve the last cached output of a page before we can check to see if a visitor’s access should be restricted. Not all page caching plugins behave the same way, but several solutions – including external solutions we might not detect – can cause restricted pages to be publicly served regardless of your settings.

Why can’t logged-in users see all the sites on my multisite instance?

In 6.2.0, the behavior in a multisite install changed from allowing any logged-in user to see a site to checking their role for that specific site. This is a safer default given the varying ways multisite is used; however, if you would prefer to rely on the previous behavior rather than explicitly adding users to each site, place the following PHP code in the theme’s functions.php file or in a simple plug-in:

add_filter( 'restricted_site_access_user_can_access', 'my_rsa_user_can_access' );

function my_rsa_user_can_access( $access ) {
    if ( is_user_logged_in() ) {
        return true;
    }

    return $access;
}

Is there a way to configure this with [WP-CLI](https://make.wordpress.org/cli/)?

As of version 7.0.0, CLI integration has been added. To see the available commands, type the following in your WordPress directory:

$ wp rsa

How can I programatically define whitelisted IPs?

In 7.0.0, the capacity to define a pipe delimited array of whitelisted IP addresses via constant was introduced.

In your wp-config.php file, you can define the following:

define( 'RSA_IP_WHITELIST', '192.0.0.1|192.0.0.10' );

In 7.1.1, the capacity to programmatically add / remove / set access IPs programmatically was introduced.

The following are valid statements:

Set IPs, ignoring all stored values (but not the constant defined values), if you’re going to use the approach with array indices rather than mixing the two.

Restricted_Site_Access::set_ips( array( '192.168.0.1', '192.168.0.2', '192.168.0.3' ) );
Restricted_Site_Access::set_ips( array( 'labelfoo' => '192.168.0.1', 'labelbar' => 192.168.0.2', 'labelbaz' => 192.168.0.3' ) );

Add IPs, if they’re not already added.

Restricted_Site_Access::add_ips( array( 'five' => '192.168.1.5', 'six' => '192.168.1.6') );

Remove IPs, if they are in the list.

Restricted_Site_Access::remove_ips( array( '192.168.1.2','192.168.1.5','192.168.1.6', ) );

Is there a constant I can set to ensure my site is (or is not) restricted?

As of version 7.1.0, two constants were introduced that give you the ability to specify if the site should be in restricted mode.

You can force the plugin to be in restricted mode by adding the following to your wp-config.php file:

define( 'RSA_FORCE_RESTRICTION', true );

Or to ensure your site won’t be in restricted mode:

define( 'RSA_FORBID_RESTRICTION', true );

Make sure you add it before the /* That's all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */ line.

Please note that setting RSA_FORCE_RESTRICTION will override RSA_FORBID_RESTRICTION if both are set.

Reviews

Super Helpful Tool

May 8, 2021
This plugin serves what it says. I was trying to solve an issue to restrict my site to specific IP addresses. This plugin solves it. Kudos team.

Great plugin, works as expected

October 24, 2020
Really good plugin, so much so that the WP devs could look at this becoming part of the core. It has enabled me to control access in development, updating and when necessary general lock down. How you use it is up to you, but for me it works perfect out of the box, easy to install and use.

Works as we want

June 19, 2020
You can specify IP range. It's perfect for a self-hosted extranet: intranet users is always authorized and extranet users need to login. The only (and significant) problem is the incompatibility with the cache solutions I tried, especially WP Rocket.
Read all 55 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Restricted Site Access” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Restricted Site Access” has been translated into 4 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Restricted Site Access” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

7.2.0

7.1.0

  • Added: IP whitelist: Add a Comment field next to each IP address to help identify IP addresses added to the whitelist.
  • Added: Add constants to force enable/disable restrictions. Set RSA_FORCE_RESTRICTION to true to force restriction or RSA_FORBID_RESTRICTION to disable restriction. RSA_FORCE_RESTRICTION will override RSA_FORBID_RESTRICTION if both are set.
  • Fixed: Disable individual site settings when network enforced mode is on to avoid confusion about why your settings are not being respected.
  • Fixed: Correctly load admin JS.
  • Fixed: Improve coding standards across plugin and introduce continuous integration linting against the WordPress coding standards. Update code to VIP Go coding standards.
  • Developers: Add unit tests accross plugin. Note that when the WP_TESTS_DOMAIN constant is set, plugin redirects are disabled. Only set this constant when running the tests.
  • Developers: Deploy plugin from GitHub to WordPress.org using GitHub Actions.
  • Developers: Add various GitHub community files.

7.0.1

  • Bug fix: Avoid redirect loop when the unrestricted page is set to be the static front page.
  • Bug fix: Fall back to the login screen if the unrestricted page is no longer published.

7.0.0

  • Feature: WP-CLI support! 🎉 Try wp rsa to get started.
  • Feature: Whitelist IPs via the RSA_IP_WHITELIST constant.
  • Feature: Use WordPress.org-provided language packs instead of bundled translations.
  • Bug fix: Restrict “virtual pages” and allow them to be used as the unrestricted page, such as with BuddyPress.
  • Bug fix: Hide settings properly when no published pages exist.
  • Bug fix: Avoid double slashes in asset URLs that can lead to 404 errors.

6.2.1

  • Bug fix: Don’t redirect logged-in users viewing the site in a single site install.

6.2.0

  • Functionality change: Check user’s role on a site in multisite before granting permission.
  • Feature: Alter or restore previous user permission checking with the restricted_site_access_user_can_access filter.
  • Avoid a fatal due to differing parameter counts for the restricted_site_access_is_restricted filter.

6.1.0

  • Correct a PHP notice when running PHP >= 7.1.
  • Refactor logic for checking ip address is in masked ip range.
  • Add PHPUnit tests validating the ip_in_mask functionality.

6.0.2

  • Add a ‘restrict_site_access_ip_match’ action which fires when an ip match occurs. Enables adding session_start() to the IP check, ensuring Varnish type cache will not cache the request.

6.0.1

  • When plugin is network activated, don’t touch individual blog visiblity settings.
  • When plugin is network deactivated, set all individual blogs to default visibility.

6.0

  • Use Grunt to manage assets.
  • Network settings added for management of entire network visibility settings.
  • Display warning if page caching is enabled.

Note: There is currently an edge case bug affecting IP whitelisting. This bug is on the docket to be fixed shortly.

5.1

  • Under the hood refactoring and clean up for performance and maintainability.
  • Small visual refinements to the settings panel.

5.0.1

  • Does not block user activation page in network mode

5.0

  • WordPress 3.5 compatibility (3.5 eliminated the Privacy settings panel in favor of a refreshed Reading panel)
  • Real validation (on the fly and on save) for IP address entries
  • “Restriction message” now supports simple HTML and is edited using WordPress’s simple HTML tag editor
  • A bunch of visual refinements that conform better with WordPress 3.4 and newer (spacing, native “shake” effect on invalid entries just like the login form, etc.)
  • A bunch of under the hood refinements (e.g. playing nicer with current screen Help API)

4.0

  • New restriction option – show restricted visitor a specified page; use with custom page templates for great for website teasers!
  • Major improvements to settings user interface, including hiding unused fields based on settings, easier selection of restriction type, and cleaner “remove” confirmation for IP address list
  • Performance improvements – catches and blocks restricted visitors earlier in the loading process
  • New filter hooks for other developers: ‘restricted_site_access_is_restricted’, ‘restricted_site_access_approach’, ‘restricted_site_access_redirect_url’, and ‘restricted_site_access_head’
  • Localization ready – rough Spanish translation included!
  • Basic support for no JavaScript mode
  • Optimized for PHP 5.2, per new WordPress 3.2 requirements (no longer supports PHP < 5.2.4)
  • Assorted other improvements and optimizations to the code base

3.2.1

  • Restored PHP4 compatibility

3.2

  • More meaningful page title in “Display Message” mode (previously WordPress > Error)
  • Code clean up, prevent rare warnings in debug mode

3.1.1

  • Fixed PHP warning when debugging is enabled and redirect path is not checked

3.1

  • New feature: backwards compatibility with PHP < 5.1 (limited testing with earlier versions)
  • Bug fix: disappearing blocked access message text box on configuration page
  • Bug fix: login always redirects visitor back to correct page
  • Improved: built in help on configuration page updated, clearer
  • Improved: “IP already in list” indicator
  • Improved: optimizations to code that handles restriction behavior

3.0

  • Integrates with Privacy settings page and site visibility option instead of adding a whole new page
  • Simplified options: clearer instructions, removed unnecessary hiding / showing of some options, fewer lines
  • Indicates whether the site is blocked in the admin next to the site title (WordPress 3.0+ only)
  • New action hook, restrict_site_access_handling, allowing developers to add their own restriction handling
  • Cleans up / removes settings when uninstalled
  • Assorted under the hood improvements for best coding practices, sanitization of options, etc

2.1

  • Customize blocked visitor message
  • Stronger security (patched “search” hole)
  • Better display / handling of blocked visitor message

2.0

  • Add support for IP ranges courtesy Eric Buth
  • Major UI changes and improvements; major code improvements

1.0.2

  • Fix login redirect to home; improve redirect handling to take advantage of wp_redirect function

1.0.1

  • Important fundamental change related to handling of what should be restricted

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Support

Issues resolved in last two months:

1 out of 5

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