What Are Webhooks?
Webhooks provide a powerful way to enable real-time notifications and integrations within applications. Essentially, a webhook is an automated message sent from one app to another over the web in response to specific events. These messages are transmitted via HTTP POST requests and contain JSON-formatted data about the event, allowing the receiving system to take appropriate actions or log the event details.
Webhook Categories
Security Ninja’s webhook feature is organized into three main categories, each catering to different aspects of your site’s security and maintenance:
- User Logins: Notifies you of both failed and successful login attempts. This category is crucial for tracking unauthorized access attempts and ensuring user account security.
- Firewall Events: Focuses on activities related to your site’s firewall, including blocked IP addresses, blocked login attempts from suspicious sources, and more. It’s an essential tool for proactive threat mitigation.
- Updates: Keeps you informed about updates to WordPress core, plugins, and themes, helping you maintain an up-to-date and secure site environment.
How It Works
To activate webhooks, simply check the “Webhook Active” option and provide a URL where the webhook notifications should be sent. Once configured, Security Ninja will notify this URL about the selected events via POST requests. The JSON object in each request offers detailed information about the event, allowing you to integrate these alerts into your own systems for further action or logging.
Configuring Webhook Events
Within the Webhooks feature, you can specify which events you’d like to monitor by selecting from the available categories:
- Firewall events: Notifies about actions taken against blocked visitors.
- User logins: Alerts you to both failed and successful login activities.
- Updates: Informs you about updates to the WordPress core, as well as installed plugins and themes.
Remember, changes to your webhook settings will only apply to future events, enabling you to tailor your monitoring and response strategies over time.
Note: The webhooks functionality was added in version 5.170 and forward.