BBQ Firewall – Fast & Powerful Firewall Security

June 29, 2024

BBQ Firewall – Fast & Powerful Firewall Security Plugin

The fastest firewall plugin for WordPress. Protect against a wide range of threats with minimal performance impact.

Install, activate, and done!
Powerful protection from WP’s fastest firewall plugin.

BBQ Firewall is a lightweight, super-fast plugin that protects your site against a wide range of threats. BBQ checks all incoming traffic and quietly blocks bad requests containing nasty stuff like eval(, base64_, and excessively long request-strings. This is a simple yet solid solution for sites that are unable to use a strong Apache/.htaccess firewall.

Adds a strong firewall to ANY WordPress site
Works with all WordPress plugins and themes

Powerful Protection

BBQ protects your site against many threats:

  • SQL injection attacks
  • Executable file uploads
  • Directory traversal attacks
  • Unsafe character requests
  • Excessively long requests
  • PHP remote/file execution
  • XSS, XXE, and related attacks
  • Protects against bad bots
  • Protects against bad referrers
  • Protects against bad POST content
  • Protects against many other bad requests

Works great with Blackhole for Bad Bots

Awesome Features

BBQ provides all the best firewall features:

  • Rated 5 stars at WordPress.org
  • 100% plug-&-play, zero configuration
  • 100% focused on security and performance
  • Blocks a wide range of malicious URL requests
  • Fastest Web Application Firewall (WAF) for WordPress
  • Based on the 6G/7G Firewall
  • Scans all incoming traffic and blocks bad requests
  • Scans all types of requests: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.
  • Protects against known bad bots and referrers
  • Works silently behind the scenes to protect your site
  • Hassle-free security plugin that’s easy to use
  • Thoroughly tested, error-free performance
  • Extremely low rate of false positives
  • Compatible with other security plugins
  • Regularly updated and “future proof”
  • Firewall < 10 kilobytes in size
  • Lightweight, fast and flexible

For advanced protection and features, check out BBQ Pro »
BBQ = Block Bad Queries

Privacy

This plugin does not collect or store any user data. It does not set any cookies, and it does not connect to any third-party locations. Thus, this plugin does not affect user privacy in any way.

BBQ Firewall is developed and maintained by Jeff Starr, 15-year WordPress developer and book author.

Support development

I develop and maintain this free plugin with love for the WordPress community. To show support, you can make a donation or purchase one of my books:

And/or purchase one of my premium WordPress plugins:

Links, tweets and likes also appreciated. Thank you! 🙂

Installation

Installing BBQ

  1. Install, activate, done.

Once active, BBQ automatically protects your site against threats. Quietly, behind the scenes. For more control and stronger protection, check out BBQ Pro »

More info on installing WP plugins

Customizing

Note that the Pro version of BBQ makes it possible to customize patterns and everything else directly via the plugin settings, with a click. BBQ Pro also displays the current block count for each firewall rule, like this.

Uninstalling

This plugin cleans up after itself. All plugin settings will be removed from your database when the plugin is uninstalled via the Plugins screen.

Like the plugin?

If you like BBQ, please take a moment to give a 5-star rating. It helps to keep development and support going strong. Thank you!

FAQ

How to test that the plugin is working?

To test that the plugin is working, you can request any of the blocked patterns. For example, visit your site’s homepage and enter the following URL:

https://example.com/eval( 

Replace example.com with your site’s actual domain. If BBQ is active, the request for that URL will be blocked (with a “403 Forbidden” status). This means the plugin is working properly. You can test other patterns as well. To view all the patterns blocked by BBQ, look at the function bbq_core() located in block-bad-queries.php.

Do you offer any other security plugins?

Yes, three of them:

Pro versions with more features available at Plugin Planet.

Do I need to do anything else for BBQ to work?

Nope, just install and relax knowing that BBQ is protecting your site from bad URL requests.

Where are the plugin settings?

No settings needed for BBQ! Everything is done automatically behind the scenes. Zero configuration required. The free version of BBQ is strictly plug-n-play, set-it-and-forget-it, with no settings to configure whatsoever. Just install, activate, and enjoy better security and robust protection against malicious requests. The Pro version of BBQ is just as fast and simple to use, but is much more powerful and includes robust settings to customize and fine-tune your firewall.

Is BBQ free version compatible with Wordfence?

Does it makes sense to use both? Yes BBQ free and BBQ Pro are both compatible with any plugin written according to the WP API. And yes, there is benefit to using BBQ with any other security plugin, including Wordfence. They protect against different threats, so using both means you are extra secure.

Does BBQ make changes to my .htaccess file?

Absolutely not. Unlike other security/firewall plugins, neither BBQ (free version) nor BBQ Pro make any changes to any .htaccess file.

Does BBQ make any changes to my WP database?

No, the free version of BBQ operates as each page is loaded; it does not make any changes whatsoever to the WP database.

Does BBQ block malicious strings included in arrays?

Yes, BBQ scans any arrays that are included in the URI request. If any matching patterns are found, the request is blocked.

My PHP scanner/checker plugin says there is an error?

For example, if your PHP/plugin scanner reports something like, “found 0x3c62723e which is bad.” Normally you would not want to find such bad strings of code, but there is an exception for security plugins. Think about it: in order to block some nasty string, BBQ must know about it. So each bad string that is blocked by BBQ is included in the plugin “blacklist”. That means, when some PHP scanner looks at BBQ and finds some known bad strings, it just means that the scanner has discovered BBQ’s list of blocked terms. In other words, BBQ contains static strings of non-functional text, in order to match and block malicious requests to your site. I hope this makes sense, feel free to contact me if I may provide any further infos.

Do I need WordPress to run BBQ?

Nope! BBQ is available in the following flavors:

So you can check out the Standalone PHP Script for sites that are not running WordPress.

Can I use BBQ and 7G/8G Firewall at the same time?

Full question: “Except most of the rules overlapping, is it counter productive (site slowing down for example, potential conflicts, bugs) or is there any risks using 7G/8G Firewall + BBQ at the same time?”

Answer: It’s fine to run both BBQ and 7G/8G Firewall at the same time. Both firewalls are super fast, so they won’t slow things down. In other words the two firewalls play well together. The only downside is that some of the rules will be redundant, but there should be no negative impact on performance. The upside is that you get extra protection when using both, as there are variations in the firewall rules and patterns, etc.

My PHP checker found something?

If you are using some PHP checker that’s reporting an error or bad string in BBQ, it’s a false positive and safe to ignore. Why? Because the PHP checker is finding the static strings/patterns that BBQ uses to identify and block bad requests. In other words, your PHP checker is finding a static string thinking it is live code. It’s not. If possible, please take a moment to report this to the developers of your PHP checker. They should be happy to improve the accuracy and quality of their plugin. More info.

How to enable logging?

You can use a free addon to display the total number of blocked requests on the BBQ settings page. Here is a guide that explains how to set it up.

Alternately, BBQ can be configured to log the matching pattern for each blocked request. When match-logging is enabled, BBQ will add a log entry in the site’s default error log. To enable match logging, use the free customize plugin.

Note that the Pro version of BBQ displays the current block count for each firewall rule, like this. All automatic, fiddling with code NOT required 🙂

Got a question?

Send any questions or feedback via my contact form.

Changelog

If you like BBQ, please take a moment to give a 5-star rating. It helps to keep development and support going strong. Thank you!

2024/06/29

  • Fixes bug with dismiss_notice_link
  • Updates plugin settings page
  • Updates default translation template
  • Tests on WordPress 6.6 (beta)

Full changelog @ https://plugin-planet.com/wp/changelog/block-bad-queries.txt

Details

  • Version: 20240629
  • Active installations: 100,000
  • WordPress Version: 4.6
  • Tested up to: 6.6.1
  • PHP Version: 5.6.20

Ratings


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