Joomla! is a free, open source Content Management System that allows you to build websites and other online applications. Because it's easy to install and simple to manage, it has attracted a large user-base. Every user of this, or any other CMS, should be worried about security. This article introduces three security extensions can enhance every Joomla! installation.

reCAPTCHA Registration



The reCAPTCHA enabled registration component is a replacement for the default registration component. It uses the reCAPTCHA online web-service to prevent automated abuse of your site and minimize bogus registration by using a CAPATCHA to ensure only humans perform certain actions. By using reCAPTCHA instead of other CAPTCHA implementations, you are helping to digitize books. Most other implementations of CAPTCHAs block visually impaired individuals, who cannot read images of distorted text. reCAPTCHA, on the other hand, has an audio test that allows blind people to freely navigate your site.


JoomlaCloner



JoomlaCloner design was specifically created to generate custom backups of any Joomla! site through custom admin inputs, and to be able to restore the clone on any other location with the help of an automatic restore script, independent from the component.

JT Security Whitelist

JT Security Whitelist is a simple plugin that helps protect your site from XSS attacks. The purpose of this plugin is to create a "whitelist" of variables for Joomla!. This means that Joomla will only accept variables that are predefined in the whitelist. This stops attackers from fiddling with the variables passed to Joomla!. If any variable doesn't validate you have the option of having a 404 error pop up or have it redirect to the correct page.