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#41763 Multiple security exceptions after blacklist ip

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Environment Information

WordPress version
6.7.2
PHP version
8.2.27
Admin Tools version
1.6.7

Latest post by nicholas on Friday, 28 March 2025 11:51 CDT

BarefootDC

I noticed an uptick in security exceptions (Uploadshield) on my client's site in the last couple of weeks. I went in and blacklisted the main offenders... they'd try, then wait a bit and try again... just enough time between to NOT get automatically blocked. The strange thing is, after I added them to the blacklist, I am still getting notifications... even with adding a deny rule in WPEngine.

Any other suggestions for me?

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

Go to Admin Tools, Web Application Firewall, Configure WAF, Logging & Reporting. Find the “Do not send email notifications for these reasons“ and add (CTRL-click on Windows and Linux, CMD-click on macOS) the Site IP Blacklist item. Then scroll down to Save Changes. This way you will not be receiving emails for IPs you've blacklisted.

Beyond that, UploadShield is doing what it's meant to do: stop malicious uploads. Whether the IP is auto-blocked or not doesn't matter much, since what they are trying to do won't work. At this point they are merely annoying, not dangerous. Once that script –because I am sure it's a script– goes through its runtime without having succeeded to attack your site it will leave you alone. I wouldn't waste any time for an attack like that unless it goes on for more than 5 calendar days, or bogs the server down with excessive requests. Of course that's me, and my use case; your action threshold might be different, depending on your use case.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

BarefootDC

Thank you so much!

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager

You're welcome!

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!