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Admin Tools for Joomla 4 and 5
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
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. Cloaking
9.2.5. Project Honeypot
9.2.6. Exceptions
9.2.7. Auto-ban
9.2.8. Logging & reporting
9.2.9. Customisation
9.2.10. Troubleshooting (I got locked out of my site)
9.3. WAF Exceptions
9.4. WAF Deny List
9.5. Administrator Exclusive Allow IP List
9.6. Site IP Allow List
9.7. Site IP Disallow List
9.8. Anti-spam Bad Words
9.9. Blocked Requests Log
9.9.1. List of blocking reasons
9.10. Auto Blocked IP Addresses
9.11. Auto IP Blocking History
9.12. Email templates
10. Database tools
11. The PHP File Scanner
11.1. How does it work and what should I know?
11.2. Configuration
11.3. Scanning and administering scans
11.4. Reading the reports
11.5. Automating the scans (CRON jobs)
11.6. Automating the scans (front-end scheduling URL)
11.7. 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. Protecting Admin Tools with a password
17. Import and Exporting Settings
18. Access Control
19. The "System - Admin Tools" plugin
20. Automating maintenance tasks
20.1. Admin Tools – PHP File Change Scanner
20.2. Admin Tools – Blocked Requests Log cleanup
20.3. Admin Tools – Session table repair & optimise
20.4. Admin Tools – Clean up session metadata
20.5. Admin Tools – Cache clean-up
20.6. Admin Tools – Clean up the temporary directory
20.7. Admin Tools – Delete inactive users
20.8. Admin Tools – Auto-import configuration
20.9. Admin Tools – Reset Joomla! Update
21. Rescue Mode
22. Custom public folder
22.1. What is a custom public folder?
22.2. Admin Tools and the Joomla! custom public folder feature
23. Troubleshooting guide
23.1. — THIS HEADER IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK —
23.2. Administrator password protection issues
23.3. New Super Users are blocked and deactivated after login
23.4. Can not create or edit Managers, Administrators, Super Administrators using Admin Tools (403 error thrown)
23.5. Locked out of my site after applying a .htaccess using Admin Tools' .htaccess Maker
23.6. Admin Tools' Web Application Firewall (WAF) locked you out of your site
23.7. My components, modules or templates stopped working after using Admin Tools .htaccess Maker and how to determine and apply exceptions
23.8. I created a .htaccess file on my main site and I can't access my other domains / subdirectories on the same account
23.9. The administrator secret URL parameter is not working
23.10. 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
2.7. .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! 4 & 5

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Working hours: We are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 7pm Cyprus timezone (EET / EEST). Support is provided by the same developers writing the software, all of which live in Europe. You can still file tickets outside of our working hours, but we cannot respond to them until we're back at the office.

Support policy: We would like to kindly inform you that when using our support you have already agreed to the Support Policy which is part of our Terms of Service. Thank you for your understanding and for helping us help you!