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Admin Tools

Admin Tools for Joomla 4 and 5
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Admin Tools for Joomla 4 and 5

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Akeeba Ltd

Copyright 2010-2026 Akeeba Ltd

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the appendix entitled "The GNU Free Documentation License".

Abstract

This book covers the use of the Admin Tools site security component, module and plugin bundle for sites powered by Joomla!™ 4 and 5. Both the free Admin Tools Core and the subscription-based Admin Tools Professional editions are completely covered.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started
1. What is Admin Tools?
1.1. Disclaimer
1.2. The philosophy
2. Server environment requirements
2.1. Enforced PHP and Joomla version limits
3. Installing Admin Tools
3.1. Installing or manually updating the extension
3.1.1. Troubleshooting the installation
4. Upgrading from Core to Professional
5. Automatic updates
5.1. Troubleshooting the update
5.1.1. Addressing server issues
5.1.2. Check the validity of your Download ID
5.1.2.1. Check your subscription status
5.1.3. Updates are showing after installing the latest version
5.1.4. Updates not showing despite having an older version
5.1.4.1. Check the update site
5.1.4.2. Refresh the update cache
5.1.5. Miscellaneous troubleshooting and information
5.1.5.1. The update fails to download
5.1.5.2. Updating with a third party service fails
5.1.5.3. Manual update
5.1.5.4. Update installation problems
6. Entering your Download ID
7. Update notes
7.1. Version 7.0.5
7.2. Version 7.0.10
7.3. Version 7.1.9
7.4. Version 7.2.0
7.5. Version 7.7.0
7.6. Version 7.7.1
7.7. Version 7.7.2
8. Requesting support and reporting bugs
9. Uninstalling Admin Tools
10. Quick Setup
2. Using Admin Tools
1. The Control Panel
2. The component Options
3. Fixing the permissions of files and directories
3.1. Configuring the permissions of files and directories
4. Emergency Off-Line Mode
5. Protect your administrator back-end with a password
5.1. Why use the Administrator Password Protection?
6. The .htaccess maker
6.1. Basic Security
6.2. Server protection
6.2.1. How to determine which exceptions are required
6.3. Custom .htaccess rules
6.4. Optimisation and utility
6.5. System configuration
7. The NginX configuration maker
7.1. Basic Security
7.2. Server protection
7.2.1. How to determine which exceptions are required
7.3. Advanced NginX Settings
7.4. Optimisation and utility
7.5. System configuration
8. The web.config maker
8.1. Basic Security
8.2. Server protection
8.2.1. How to determine which exceptions are required
8.3. Optimisation and utility
8.4. System configuration
9. Web Application Firewall
9.1. Visitor IP addresses in Joomla
9.2. Configure WAF
9.2.1. Basic Features
9.2.2. Request Filtering
9.2.3. Hardening Options
9.2.4. Reporting the changed configuration options
9.2.5. Cloaking
9.2.6. Project Honeypot
9.2.7. Exceptions
9.2.8. Auto-ban
9.2.9. Logging & reporting
9.2.10. Customisation
9.2.11. Troubleshooting (I got locked out of my site)
9.3. WAF Exceptions
9.4. Third-party integration API
9.5. WAF Deny List
9.6. Administrator Exclusive Allow IP List
9.7. Site IP Allow List
9.8. Site IP Disallow List
9.9. Anti-spam Bad Words
9.9.1. Bad Words are regular expressions
9.10. Blocked Requests Log
9.10.1. List of blocking reasons
9.11. Auto Blocked IP Addresses
9.12. Auto IP Blocking History
9.13. Email templates
9.13.1. Updating a customised Configuration Monitoring email after upgrading to 7.9.0
10. Database tools
11. The PHP File Scanner
11.1. How does it work and what should I know?
11.2. Core file verification (CoreSums)
11.2.1. What it does
11.2.2. Why this feature exists
11.2.3. Privacy
11.2.4. Behaviour when the checksums file cannot be downloaded
11.3. Configuration
11.4. Scanning and administering scans
11.5. Reading the reports
11.6. Automating the scans (CRON jobs)
11.7. Automating the scans (front-end scheduling URL)
11.8. Automating with Joomla Scheduled Tasks
12. SEO and Link Tools
13. Reset Joomla! Update
14. URL Redirection
14.1. Entering URL redirections en masse
15. Cleaning your temporary files directory
16. Obsolete Core Files
17. Protecting Admin Tools with a password
18. Import and Exporting Settings
19. Access Control
20. The "System - Admin Tools" plugin
21. Automating maintenance tasks
21.1. Admin Tools – PHP File Change Scanner
21.2. Admin Tools – Blocked Requests Log cleanup
21.3. Admin Tools – Session table repair & optimise
21.4. Admin Tools – Clean up session metadata
21.5. Admin Tools – Cache clean-up
21.6. Admin Tools – Clean up the temporary directory
21.7. Admin Tools – Remove Obsolete Core Files
21.8. Admin Tools – Delete inactive users
21.9. Admin Tools – Auto-import configuration
21.10. Admin Tools – Reset Joomla! Update
22. Rescue Mode
23. Custom public folder
23.1. What is a custom public folder?
23.2. Admin Tools and the Joomla! custom public folder feature
24. Troubleshooting guide
24.1. — THIS HEADER IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK —
24.2. Administrator password protection issues
24.3. New Super Users are blocked and deactivated after login
24.4. Can not create or edit Managers, Administrators, Super Administrators using Admin Tools (403 error thrown)
24.5. Locked out of my site after applying a .htaccess using Admin Tools' .htaccess Maker
24.6. Admin Tools' Web Application Firewall (WAF) locked you out of your site
24.7. My components, modules or templates stopped working after using Admin Tools .htaccess Maker and how to determine and apply exceptions
24.8. I created a .htaccess file on my main site and I can't access my other domains / subdirectories on the same account
24.9. The administrator secret URL parameter is not working
24.10. There are too many security exceptions. Should I be worried?
3. Admin Tools Command Line Interface
1. Common conventions
2. Command Reference
2.1. Blocked Request Management
2.1.1. admintools:autoban:list
2.1.2. admintools:autoban:remove
2.1.3. admintools:autobanhistory:list
2.1.4. admintools:autobanhistory:remove
2.1.5. admintools:log:list
2.1.6. admintools:log:remove
2.1.7. admintools:unblock
2.2. IP Allow and Disallow
2.2.1. admintools:ipallow:add
2.2.2. admintools:ipallow:list
2.2.3. admintools:ipallow:modify
2.2.4. admintools:ipallow:remove
2.2.5. admintools:ipdisallow:add
2.2.6. admintools:ipdisallow:list
2.2.7. admintools:ipdisallow:modify
2.2.8. admintools:ipdisallow:remove
2.3. Bad Words Management
2.3.1. admintools:badwords:add
2.3.2. admintools:badwords:list
2.3.3. admintools:badwords:remove
2.4. Export and Import Settings
2.4.1. admintools:export
2.4.2. admintools:import
2.5. Web Application Firewall
2.5.1. admintools:waf:get
2.5.2. admintools:waf:list
2.5.3. admintools:waf:set
2.5.4. admintools:wafdeny:add
2.5.5. admintools:wafdeny:list
2.5.6. admintools:wafdeny:modify
2.5.7. admintools:wafdeny:remove
2.5.8. admintools:wafexceptions:add
2.5.9. admintools:wafexceptions:list
2.5.10. admintools:wafexceptions:modify
2.5.11. admintools:wafexceptions:remove
2.6. Automation
2.6.1. admintools:offline
2.6.2. admintools:scan
2.6.3. admintools:joomlaupdate:reset
2.6.4. admintools:temp:clear
2.6.5. admintools:joomla:obsoletefiles
2.7. .htaccess Maker / NginX Conf Maker / web.config Maker
2.7.1. admintools:htmaker:list
2.7.2. admintools:htmaker:get
2.7.3. admintools:htmaker:set
2.7.4. admintools:htmaker:make
A. GNU General Public License version 3
B. GNU Free Documentation License

List of Tables

2.1. Sample spreadsheet
Next
Chapter1.Getting Started

Admin Tools for Joomla!

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