Blackhole for Bad Bots
Healthy: downloads in the last 4 weeks are down more than half vs the 26-week average.
| Ownership | 100 |
|---|---|
| Maintenance | 100 |
| Security | 90 |
| Support | 70 |
| Reputation | 60 |
Active signals
Facts we detected, with links to the source.
- InfoMOM-2Downloads in the last 4 weeks are down more than half vs the 26-week average. Review this plugin.4 Nov 2026Evidence
Ownership timeline
Who commits to the plugin's code on wordpress.org, over time.
| specialk | 18 Feb 2016 to 21 Aug 2026, 75 commits |
|---|
1 committer recorded. No ownership changes recorded since 3 Nov 2026.
Maintenance
- Last release
- 3 months ago
- Releases, 24 months
- 7
- Tested up to
- 7.1 current
- Requires PHP
- 5.6.20 supported 8.2+
| Q1 2024 | 1 |
|---|---|
| Q2 2024 | 1 |
| Q3 2024 | 0 |
| Q4 2024 | 2 |
| Q1 2025 | 1 |
| Q2 2025 | 0 |
| Q3 2025 | 0 |
| Q4 2025 | 1 |
| Q1 2026 | 2 |
| Q2 2026 | 1 |
| Q3 2026 | 2 |
| Q4 2026 | 0 |
Last release 21 Aug 2026. Tested with WordPress 7.1 (current).
Support
67% of 3 support threads resolved in the last 2 months.
Security record
| Published | Issue | CVSS | Affected | Fixed in | Days to patch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Mar 2026 | Blackhole for Bad Bots <= 3.8 - Unauthenticated Stored Cross-Site Scripting via User-Agent HTTP Header | 7.2 | <= 3.8 | 3.8.1 | 0 |
| 31 Jan 2022 | Blackhole for Bad Bots <= 3.3.1 - Arbitrary IP Address Blocking via IP Spoofing | 9.1 | < 3.3.2 | 3.3.2 | 0 |
Source: Wordfence Intelligence.
Reputation
| Q1 2024 | 5.0 |
|---|---|
| Q2 2024 | 4.0 |
| Q3 2024 | 3.3 |
| Q1 2025 | 2.3 |
| Q2 2025 | 5.0 |
| Q4 2025 | 3.0 |
| Q2 2026 | 5.0 |
Average rating stayed at 5.0 between Q1 2024 and Q2 2026.
| 5 star | 134 |
|---|---|
| 4 star | 3 |
| 3 star | 4 |
| 2 star | 1 |
| 1 star | 6 |
- Be very careful … · 1 star · 18 Mar 2025
- Beware! · 1 star · 21 Feb 2025
- Didn’t work, and too many features gatekept · 2 stars · 23 Sep 2024
Momentum
30,000+ active installs. History builds with each weekly snapshot.
| 4 May 2026 | 950 |
|---|---|
| 11 May 2026 | 1,859 |
| 18 May 2026 | 2,478 |
| 25 May 2026 | 1,445 |
| 1 Jun 2026 | 1,233 |
| 8 Jun 2026 | 1,212 |
| 15 Jun 2026 | 1,069 |
| 22 Jun 2026 | 924 |
| 29 Jun 2026 | 869 |
| 6 Jul 2026 | 993 |
| 13 Jul 2026 | 896 |
| 20 Jul 2026 | 998 |
| 27 Jul 2026 | 970 |
| 3 Aug 2026 | 1,074 |
| 10 Aug 2026 | 21,005 |
| 17 Aug 2026 | 17,956 |
| 24 Aug 2026 | 5,273 |
| 31 Aug 2026 | 3,014 |
| 7 Sep 2026 | 1,819 |
| 14 Sep 2026 | 2,281 |
| 21 Sep 2026 | 1,770 |
| 28 Sep 2026 | 1,298 |
| 5 Oct 2026 | 1,255 |
| 12 Oct 2026 | 1,021 |
| 19 Oct 2026 | 1,466 |
| 26 Oct 2026 | 1,100 |
| 2 Nov 2026 | 171 |
Weekly downloads over the last 4 weeks are 67% below the 27-week average.
Healthier alternatives
Same category, higher Canary Score. Never sponsored.
Facts
| Version | 3.8.4 |
|---|---|
| Author | Jeff Starr |
| Added | 18 Feb 2016 |
| Last updated | 21 Aug 2026 |
| Active installs | 30,000+ |
| Requires WordPress | 4.7 |
| Tested up to | 7.1.4 |
| Requires PHP | 5.6.20 |
| Category | Security & Privacy > Security Scanning & Malware Protection |
| Tags | bots, honeypot, security, anti-spam, blackhole |
Other plugins by this author: Disable Gutenberg, GA Google Analytics - Connect Google Analytics to WordPress, BBQ Firewall - Fast & Powerful Firewall Security, Disable WP REST API, Disable WP Sitemaps, User Submitted Posts - Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End, Head Meta Data, Disable Media Sizes, Disable Lazy Load, Theme Switcha - Easily Switch Themes for Development and Testing, Simple Blog Stats, Dashboard Widgets Suite
Questions
Is Blackhole for Bad Bots still maintained?
Blackhole for Bad Bots was last updated on 21 Aug 2026. Its Canary status is Healthy.
Is Blackhole for Bad Bots safe?
Blackhole for Bad Bots has no open unpatched vulnerabilities on record. 1 vulnerability was published in the last 24 months. Its Canary status is Healthy.
Who owns Blackhole for Bad Bots?
The wordpress.org author is Jeff Starr. Recent committers: specialk, plugin-master. We have recorded no ownership change.
What can I use instead of Blackhole for Bad Bots?
Plugins in the same category with a higher Canary Score: hCaptcha for WP, ActiveLayer Anti-Spam: Spam Protection for Forms & Comments, SilentShield - Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce), Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection, CryptX.