Unstoppable Site Connector

Unstoppable Site Connector links this site to an Unstoppable Site Manager dashboard, which your web designer or agency runs on their own WordPress site (not a service run by Unstoppable Solutions). Connecting delegates administration of this site to whoever runs that dashboard. Once connected, they can:

• see this site's health: pending updates, WordPress and PHP versions, SSL certificate expiry;
• update WordPress, plugins and themes;
• install, activate, deactivate and delete plugins;
• open this site's admin area already signed in (one-click sign-in, can be turned off);
• build a monthly care report from this site's activity log.

How the connection is protected

• No passwords are stored or sent. The site and the dashboard are paired once with a key that works one time and expires after 15 minutes.
• Every request from the dashboard is signed and checked; a request can't be replayed or used after 5 minutes.
• One-click sign-in links work once and expire after 60 seconds. You can turn it off, or choose which administrator account it uses, under Tools > Unstoppable Site Connector. Because it skips the login form, two-factor checks on the login form don't apply to it; turn it off if every sign-in must use two-factor.
• Every sign-in from the dashboard is recorded in the activity log.
• Disconnect at any time under Tools > Unstoppable Site Connector.

This site has the last word The security settings under Tools > Unstoppable Site Connector > Security belong to this site, not to the dashboard. The dashboard can make them stricter, but only an administrator of this site can loosen them. For the strongest protection, allow only your dashboard's address, and switch off one-click sign-in and installing plugins from a ZIP file or web address unless you use them: each of those gives whoever controls the dashboard full control of this site.

• Allowed dashboard addresses. Accept dashboard requests only from your dashboard server's IP address. A request with a valid signature from anywhere else is refused, so a stolen dashboard key is useless elsewhere. The dashboard can set this for you in one click.
• Permissions. Choose what the dashboard may do here: run updates, activate and deactivate plugins, install plugins from WordPress.org, install plugins from a ZIP file or web address, delete plugins, and one-click sign-in.
• Security alert emails. Get an email when the dashboard installs or deletes a plugin, changes these settings or connects, when a correctly signed request is blocked, and (optionally) on every one-click sign-in.

For extra hardening, set the allowed addresses in wp-config.php so they can't be changed from wp-admin at all: define( 'USCN_ALLOWED_IPS', '203.0.113.10' );. If this site is behind a proxy such as Cloudflare and your host doesn't pass on the real address, tell the plugin which header holds it: define( 'USCN_CLIENT_IP_HEADER', 'HTTP_CF_CONNECTING_IP' ); (only when the site can only be reached through that proxy). Previously released as FM Connector. Installing Unstoppable Site Connector on a site that has FM Connector takes over its connection (no re-pairing); you can then deactivate and delete FM Connector. Bulk connect. A dashboard owner can download a copy of this plugin made for their dashboard (Add Site > Connect many sites at once) and install it on many sites with a bulk tool. Such a copy connects its site to that dashboard by itself, using a time-limited pass, and the site's settings screen says so. A normal copy from WordPress.org never connects anywhere on its own.

0.6.0

• Bulk connect: a copy of this plugin made by your dashboard connects its site to that dashboard by itself, so many sites can be connected at once with a bulk install tool.

0.5.5

• WordPress.org review fixes: plugin files are only installed from WordPress.org or the connected dashboard; FM Connector is no longer switched off automatically; connecting now asks you to confirm what it allows; the WordPress version is read without loading a core file.

0.5.4

• Reports how far its activity log goes, so the dashboard can skip a request when nothing is new (faster refresh).

0.5.3

• "Tested up to" now lives only in readme.txt, as WordPress.org requires.

0.5.2

• No more security alert email when the dashboard updates the connector itself.

0.5.1

• FM Connector is now only switched off after its connection moves across, never deleted automatically; the settings screen says when it can be deleted.
• WordPress.org readiness: Plugin Check fixes, a languages folder, and a security contact.

0.5.0

• New Security settings that belong to this site and can only be loosened here: allowed dashboard IP addresses, what the dashboard may do (updates, activate/deactivate, installs from WordPress.org, installs from ZIP or web address, deletes), and security alert emails.
• Correctly signed requests from an address that isn't allowed are refused, logged and emailed, with a one-click "my dashboard moved" fix.
• The dashboard can lock this site to its address and switch permissions off, but never back on.
• Optional wp-config.php constants USCN_ALLOWED_IPS and USCN_CLIENT_IP_HEADER (the right-most address in a forwarding header is used).
• Installing with "activate" also needs the activate permission, and replacing an installed plugin also needs the updates permission.

0.4.1

• Update checks, updates and plugin changes requested by the dashboard now run inside this site's admin area, so paid plugins that only check for updates there (such as Crocoblock's Jet plugins) are found and updated. If the server blocks this, they run as before and the dashboard shows a warning.
• Refreshing no longer drops pending updates that paid plugins reported earlier.

0.4.0

• Renamed from FM Connector to Unstoppable Site Connector. Takes over FM Connector's connection, settings and activity log, then removes FM Connector.