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Segurium – Free Website Protection: Antivirus, Malware Removal & Auto Cleanup, Vulnerability Alerts

Segurium – Free Website Protection: Antivirus, Malware Removal & Auto Cleanup, Vulnerability Alerts

By Segurium
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Description

Site hacked? Segurium removes the malware, for free.

Most security plugins scan the site, name the infected files, and then ask for money to clean them. Segurium does the cleanup. It finds the infected files, removes the malicious code, and puts the original file back, with a reversible encrypted backup. The free tier covers up to 3 cloud cleanups per rolling 30 days, which is enough for a typical incident. No ad walls, no background processes that chew through your shared-hosting CPU budget.

Run it on every site you look after and the setup stays the same. Switch on auto-cleanup and a file that real-time scanning flags is repaired before anyone opens the dashboard. Plugins and themes with a known vulnerability get a red Vulnerable badge and an Update button. Export the settings once, import them on the next site, accept the service disclosure from WP-CLI, and let each site email you within 24 hours when malware turns up.

What you get on every install

Every feature below ships in the plugin and runs on every install — Free and Pro alike:

  • Malware removal and cleanup — A full filesystem scan finds the infected files; one click strips the malicious code out and keeps an encrypted, reversible backup, so a wrong call is never permanent. A unified “Threats” view collects every finding.
  • Bulk “Fix All” remediation — Queue every detected threat for cleanup in one click on both malware and integrity panels.
  • Auto-cleanup on detection — Switch it on and a file that real-time scanning flags is cleaned without waiting for an admin to open the dashboard. Off by default; at its best next to a daily schedule, which applies the same rule.
  • Real-time and upload scanning — New and modified files are checked automatically; infected uploads are blocked before they land on disk.
  • Integrity scan — Verify WordPress core, plugins and themes against upstream manifests, and restore a rewritten file to its official content. That is how you undo a hack that edited legitimate files. Tampered, delisted and abandoned components show up here too.
  • Cleanup with encrypted, reversible backups — Before anything is cleaned, the original file is encrypted (AES-256-GCM) and stored locally. Backups are retained for up to 30 days, subject to per-bucket count and size caps. “Show original” and “Restore” are one click away.
  • Scheduled scans — Off / daily / weekly with a locale-aware time picker. Each run chains an integrity check behind the malware pass on the same cadence.
  • Two-factor authentication — TOTP apps, email fallback, backup codes, trusted devices, per-role enforcement and grace period.
  • Brute-force protection — Multi-tier lockouts on wp-login.php and XML-RPC, honeypot field, manual IP unlock, optional hCaptcha on login.
  • Firewall — Allow / deny IP rules, CIDR ranges and country-level filters with a single source-of-truth IP list shared across login, admin and request gating.
  • Geo-blocking — Block login or admin traffic by country using a local binary database (auto-updated), with a confirm-or-revert safety net so you can’t lock yourself out.
  • Security headers — Security HTTP response headers, cookie hardening (SameSite/Secure/HttpOnly), and five one-click preset modes.
  • Information Shield — Toggles that hide WordPress version fingerprints, discovery endpoints, asset ?ver= strings, and XML-RPC when you don’t use them.
  • Self-Check security grade — Checks roll up into an A+ to F grade, each with one-click Fix buttons and cross-referenced with third-party services.
  • Migration importer — Import your settings from Wordfence, All-In-One Security and Solid Security so you don’t lose your hardening when you switch. Sucuri Security is detected too, but its settings live in Sucuri’s cloud dashboard and cannot be read locally, so there is nothing to import.
  • Disaster recovery — Local encrypted backups can be extracted with a tiny PHP one-liner, even if Segurium is uninstalled.
  • Embedded support.

How the Pro service tier differs

Our cloud service performs the cleanups and counts each against a per-installation quota. The Free service tier covers up to 3 cleanups per rolling 30 days — enough for an occasional incident on a typical site. The Pro service tier raises that quota for sites that need higher volume (recurring infections, hosts under sustained attack, sites with high reliability requirements). The plugin code, the detection engines, and every feature listed above are identical on both tiers; the only difference is the quota ceiling enforced server-side.

Privacy by default

  • Scanning is opt-in. Until you accept the service disclosure on the plugin’s admin page, nothing contacts the cloud and the plugin stays idle.
  • Hash-first, body-on-miss. During a scan, files are checked by SHA-256 first. Only files whose hash is unknown to the cloud have their bytes uploaded for classification, so the volume of content actually leaving your server is small and bounded by what’s new on disk.
  • No telemetry on your visitors. We look at files and security incidents, not at the people who visit your site.
  • On-premise mode. Switch off cloud-assisted malware detection and scans send hashes, paths and metadata only.

External Services

Segurium connects to external services to keep your WordPress install protected. Each service is disclosed below with the data that is sent and when. Nothing is sent before you accept the service disclosure on the plugin’s admin page.

Cloud Threat Inspection

Cloud Threat Inspection, our own service at cti.segurium.com, provides malware verdicts, integrity manifests, geo-location data, trusted-proxy IP ranges, support intake, cleanup files, and a per-installation quota on how many files it will clean in a rolling 30-day window. The service is contacted when:

  • A malware, integrity, real-time or upload scan is running.
  • You act on a plugin page. Accepting the service disclosure sends four things at once: a one-time installation registration (a random commitment hash, your site name, your site URL, your WordPress version, and, if you enabled email alerts, the alert email address you entered), a one-line plugin_activated ping, a consent record, and a first platform snapshot of the kind described below. Requesting cleanup of an infected file sends only that file’s SHA-256; the cleaned bytes come back by hash. A support request, false-positive report or missed-malware report sends the data you typed plus the file bytes you attached. A settings change sends a snapshot of that settings group. Deactivating the plugin sends a one-line plugin_deactivated ping, skipped entirely if you never accepted the disclosure. Activating it sends nothing on its own.
  • A daily scheduled job runs. Four of them exist. The GeoIP database update and the trusted-proxies update only fetch data. The component-inventory ping sends your installed plugin/theme slugs and versions and your WordPress version, so we can spot tampered, delisted or abandoned components. The platform snapshot sends how your site is built: your WordPress version, locale, multisite and debug flags, whether WP-Cron is disabled and whether the site is served over HTTPS; your PHP version, SAPI, memory limit, maximum execution time and maximum input vars; your web server and its version; your database engine and version; your operating system family and architecture; the plugin version; and your active theme’s slug and version. It carries no file contents, no paths and nothing about your visitors.
  • A brute-force lockout, geo-block or other security event fires. That sends a small JSON payload with the event type, your site URL, your domain, your WordPress / PHP / plugin versions, and a SHA-256 hash of the username, never the username itself or the password.

Data sent during scans (malware, real-time and upload alike): SHA-256 hashes of files on your server, file paths relative to your WordPress installation, file sizes, file modification times, plugin and theme version strings, and your WordPress version. For files whose SHA-256 is not yet known to the cloud verdict database, we also upload the file’s bytes so the file can be classified.

Turning the upload off: the “Cloud-assisted malware detection” setting on the Settings tab controls it. Switch it off for On-premise mode and scans send hashes, paths and metadata only, so a file whose hash the cloud does not recognise stays unresolved. Two uploads survive that mode, because you pick the file yourself: a false-positive report and a support-ticket attachment.

Retention: we keep file samples uploaded for analysis for up to 365 days, then an automated nightly purge removes them. The full schedule is in the privacy policy linked below.

A random installation identifier (IID), issued at registration time, identifies each request. We do not send your posts, pages, or anything about your visitors, and we never send passwords. The privacy policy linked below names the data controller and how to reach them.

Freemius (api.freemius.com, checkout.freemius.com, wp.freemius.com)

Segurium uses the Freemius WordPress SDK (bundled in freemius/) for license activation, paid-plan checkout and account management on the Pro plan. The SDK ships in anonymous mode: on activation Segurium tells it to skip the connect prompt, so it sends no request to Freemius and collects no telemetry from your install. Freemius, Inc. operates the service.

Freemius servers hear from your site only when you click an upgrade or “Manage billing” button on the account page and complete the checkout on checkout.freemius.com, or when you activate, sync or deactivate a Pro license there. In that second case the SDK posts the licence key, your site URL, your WordPress / PHP versions and the plugin version to api.freemius.com. Never open the account page and never enter a licence, and your site never calls Freemius at all.

hCaptcha (js.hcaptcha.com, hcaptcha.com) — OPTIONAL

If, and only if, you enable hCaptcha on the brute-force-protection settings page and provide your own hCaptcha site key and secret key, Segurium will:

  • Load the hCaptcha JavaScript from https://js.hcaptcha.com/1/api.js on the wp-login.php page so the challenge can render.
  • Send the hCaptcha token and the visitor’s IP address to https://hcaptcha.com/siteverify to verify the challenge on login attempts.

hCaptcha is off by default. Until you enable it, no hCaptcha scripts or requests are loaded. hCaptcha is provided by Intuition Machines, Inc.; their terms and privacy policy apply when you enable the feature.

Source Code of Bundled Libraries

Every release is mirrored at https://github.com/Segurium/segurium-plugin.

Segurium ships the Freemius WordPress SDK in freemius/ for licensing, checkout and support flows. A small number of files inside that SDK (freemius/assets/js/jquery.form.js and freemius/assets/js/postmessage.js) are minified upstream and shipped as-is. The unminified source for the entire SDK is published under GPL-3.0 at:

  • https://github.com/Freemius/wordpress-sdk

The SDK version bundled with this release is recorded in freemius/start.php ($this_sdk_version).

Screenshots

Fix all finished — files cleaned, every original restorable from an encrypted backup. Free tier.
Fix all finished — files cleaned, every original restorable from an encrypted backup. Free tier.
The scan that found them — every infected file listed with a Clean button.
The scan that found them — every infected file listed with a Clean button.
Security Self-Check — an A+ to F grade with one-click fixes.
Security Self-Check — an A+ to F grade with one-click fixes.
Integrity scan — per-component status, with Fix and Restore for drifted files.
Integrity scan — per-component status, with Fix and Restore for drifted files.
Geo-blocking — preset regions and per-country control.
Geo-blocking — preset regions and per-country control.
Firewall — IPv4, IPv6 and CIDR lists, proxy ranges auto-detected.
Firewall — IPv4, IPv6 and CIDR lists, proxy ranges auto-detected.
Brute-force protection — lockout windows, extended bans, live attack statistics.
Brute-force protection — lockout windows, extended bans, live attack statistics.
Two-Factor Authentication — TOTP and email, per-role enforcement, trusted devices.
Two-Factor Authentication — TOTP and email, per-role enforcement, trusted devices.
Security headers — presets and cookie hardening, with a live preview.
Security headers — presets and cookie hardening, with a live preview.
Information Shield — hides the version and discovery metadata WordPress exposes.
Information Shield — hides the version and discovery metadata WordPress exposes.
Migration tool — previews another security plugin's settings before import.
Migration tool — previews another security plugin’s settings before import.
Scheduled scans — off, daily or weekly, with email alerts.
Scheduled scans — off, daily or weekly, with email alerts.
Plans — <img data-wp-class--hide= forever, 3 cleanups every 30 days; a year per site lifts the cap.” class=”wp-image-9000013″ width=”1280″ height=”960″ loading=”eager” fetchpriority=”low” decoding=”async”/>
Plans — $0 forever, 3 cleanups every 30 days; $79 a year per site lifts the cap.

Installation

  1. Upload the segurium folder to /wp-content/plugins/, or install through Plugins Add New in the WordPress admin.
  2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.
  3. Open Segurium in the admin sidebar and accept the service disclosure to enable scanning.
  4. (Optional) Import settings from your previous security plugin via Segurium Migration.
  5. (Optional) Enable two-factor authentication, geo-blocking and security headers from their respective tabs.

FAQ

Which security features are free in Segurium that other plugins sell as premium?

All of them. Two-factor authentication with an authenticator app (TOTP), email codes, backup codes, trusted devices and per-role enforcement. Brute force protection with login attempt limits, lockouts, a honeypot and xmlrpc coverage. A firewall with IP, CIDR and country rules, so you can block a country from your login page. Security headers with HSTS, CSP, Referrer-Policy and Permissions-Policy, plus cookie hardening. Geoblocking from a local database, by country or by preset region (EU, Americas, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Middle East, High-Risk). None of it is a trial and none of it is gated behind a pro plan. Only the number of cloud cleanups is capped on the free tier: three every 30 days.

Can I set up malware cleanup on many sites without opening each dashboard?

Yes. WP-CLI accepts the service disclosure and reports the cleanup quota, and settings export and import carry one site’s configuration to the next. Every install runs the same plugin code and the same free quota, so a site that joins later behaves like the rest.

Is Segurium an antivirus for a WordPress website?

In practice, yes. People call the same problem a website virus, a WordPress virus or malware, and it is one thing: files on your server that should not be there, plus code an attacker added to files that should. Segurium hashes the files on your server and asks the cloud verdict database what each one is, so an anti-malware scan of a whole website is a hash lookup rather than a file-by-file inspection. A desktop antivirus protects your laptop. Segurium does that job for your WordPress files, and it removes what it finds.

Can Segurium replace a paid security plugin?

For malware removal, two-factor authentication, a firewall, geoblocking and security headers, yes. Those are the parts most plugins sell as a premium subscription, and Segurium ships them free on every install. The paid tier only raises the cloud cleanup quota. If you are moving from another security plugin, the Migration tab imports your settings from Wordfence, All-In-One Security and Solid Security so the switch does not cost you your hardening.

What does a Segurium scan look for?

Files the cloud verdict database has already classified as malicious. In a normal break-in that means an uploaded web shell or backdoor, a redirect injected into a theme file, spam pages, spam links, hidden links, a phishing page dropped in an upload folder, the Japanese keyword hack, and leftovers from a crypto miner. Segurium does not care what the family is called, whether someone labels it a trojan or a virus. It checks whether a file is malicious and whether it can put the clean version back.

Does Segurium remove malware for free, or only detect it?

It removes it. Malware removal runs on the free service tier: up to 3 cloud cleanups per rolling 30 days, enough for a typical incident. Most other plugins report the malware for free and charge for the repair. Every one is reversible from a local encrypted backup.

How do I clean a hacked WordPress site when I have no backup?

That is the usual case, and it is what the cleanup engine is for. Where an attacker injected code into a file of yours, Segurium strips the injection and leaves the rest of the file alone. Where the file is nothing but malware, it gets emptied. For WordPress core, plugin and theme files, the integrity scan pulls the official content from upstream manifests, so you get a clean copy even with nothing of your own to restore from.

My site is hacked, redirects visitors, or Google blacklisted it. What do I do?

Install Segurium on the hacked site, accept the service disclosure and run a malware scan. Segurium lists the infected files and cleans them on one click, keeping an encrypted backup of every original. Then run an integrity scan, so any core, plugin or theme file the attack rewrote is restored to its official content. Redirect, Japanese SEO spam and pharma hacks live in exactly those files. Once the malware is gone, request a review in Google Search Console or ask your host to lift the suspension; Segurium removes the reason for them, it does not file the requests.

Will Segurium slow my site down?

It shouldn’t. Scans run in chunked background jobs, behind a lock so a single run can’t pile on top of itself. Real-time scanning only inspects new and modified files. The plugin keeps no large tables in memory and ships no bundled binaries.

What happens if Segurium flags a file that isn’t really malware?

Every cleanup is reversible. Originals are encrypted (AES-256-GCM) and stored locally — retained for up to 30 days, subject to per-bucket count and size caps — and you can restore from backup in one click. You can also submit a false-positive report directly from the threats list, and our team uses those to improve classification.

Does Segurium quarantine infected files, and does it flag vulnerable plugins?

There is no separate quarantine folder. Segurium handles a suspicious file in place: it encrypts the original (AES-256-GCM), stores that copy locally, then strips the malicious code out, so the file is neutralised and you can put the original back for up to 30 days. The integrity check compares WordPress core, plugins and themes against upstream manifests and marks a component whose installed release carries a known vulnerability with a red Vulnerable badge and an Update button; tampered, delisted and abandoned components show up there too.

Is hCaptcha required for brute-force protection?

No. Brute-force protection works out of the box with rate limits, honeypot and lockouts. hCaptcha is optional — if you already have an hCaptcha site key and secret, you can enable it on the login form for an additional layer. When disabled (the default), no hCaptcha scripts or requests are ever loaded.

What PHP and WordPress versions are supported?

PHP 7.4 or newer and WordPress 6.2 or newer. Regularly tested against PHP 8.1 / 8.2 / 8.3 and WordPress 6.3 through 7.0.

What happens if I uninstall the plugin?

Plugin options, custom tables and local scan backups are removed. The local encrypted backups remain extractable with a small PHP one-liner before uninstall (see the Disaster Recovery documentation on segurium.com) if you want to keep copies.

How do I report a security issue in Segurium itself?

Email security@segurium.com rather than opening a public support topic. Our disclosure policy, testing ground rules and researcher acknowledgements are at https://segurium.com/security/ — it also explains what we can and cannot offer in return. Please keep details private until a fix is available to users.

Reviews

Great plugin

August 7, 2026 1 reply
Does exactly what it says. Been running on my website for a while. Light in terms of resource requirements. Average scan takes ~3 minutes for my blog. So far, so good.
Read all 2 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Segurium – Free Website Protection: Antivirus, Malware Removal & Auto Cleanup, Vulnerability Alerts” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Segurium – Free Website Protection: Antivirus, Malware Removal & Auto Cleanup, Vulnerability Alerts” has been translated into 16 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Segurium – Free Website Protection: Antivirus, Malware Removal & Auto Cleanup, Vulnerability Alerts” into your language.

Interested in development?

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

Changelog

1.4.0 – 2026-09-07

  • Extends WP-CLI capabilities: Manage licences. export and import settings.
  • Score flagged vulnerable components in Self-Check.
  • Self-Check form capable auto-resolve simple issues.
  • Minor scanner improvements.
  • Minor UI improvements.

1.3.2 – 2026-09-04

  • Some Self-Check fixes apply in place.
  • Show a red mark on the Segurium menu and tab when malware or a vulnerable component is present.
  • Badge components whose installed release is known vulnerable.
  • Show Outdated status and an Update button on the Integrity tab.
  • Stop assessing the cookie HttpOnly flag in Self-Check.

Older entries are in changelog.txt, which ships with the plugin, and the full history is published at https://segurium.com/changelog/.

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