Semisecure Login Reimagined
"Re-imagined" version of Semisecure Login that uses public and secret-key encryption to encrypt passwords when logging in.
Consider an alternative
Semisecure Login Reimagined shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 70+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 15 years ago, and scores 32/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (70+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- No update in 15 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 3.1 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Semisecure Login Reimagined stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| admin | >100 |
| encryption | >100 |
| login | >100 |
| RSA | #71 |
| security | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews
About Semisecure Login Reimagined
From the official readme · v3.2.0Description
Please note that I’ve moved away from WordPress for the time being. I have no plans to continue updating my plugins. If someone was thinking of forking this project, now would be the time.
Semisecure Login Reimagined increases the security of the login process by using a combination of public and secret-key encryption to encrypt the password on the client-side when a user logs in. JavaScript is required to enable encryption. It is most useful for situations where SSL is not available, but the administrator wishes to have some additional security measures in place without sacrificing convenience.
This plugin is a “re-imagining” of the original Semisecure Login (which used one-way MD5 hashing). This version works with the new phpass hashed passwords that WordPress uses, as well as maintaining backwards compatibility with the older (pre WordPress 2.5) MD5 hashed passwords. Theoretically, it will also work with any other hashing algorithm (because this plugin simply adds an extra layer in the process rather than trying to authenticate anything itself).
This plugin requires PHP to be compiled with openssl support, which is a pretty standard option for most hosts.
Additional Info
In general…
- Semisecure Login Reimagined 3.2.x is tested to work with:
- WP 3.1.x
- PHP 4.3.x – 5.3.x
- Semisecure Login Reimagined 3.1.x was tested to work with:
- WP 2.8.x – 3.0.x
- PHP 4.3.x – 5.3.x
- Semisecure Login Reimagined 3.0.x was tested to work with:
- WP 2.7.x – 2.9.x
- PHP 4.3.x – 5.3.x
- Semisecure Login Reimagined 2.x was tested to work with:
- WP 2.2.x – 2.8.x
- PHP 4.2.x – 5.2.x
- Semisecure Login Reimagined 1.x was tested to work with:
- WP 2.1.x – 2.7.x
- PHP 4.3.x – 5.2.x
** See the readme.txt file for each version for more specific information
Installation
- Upload the entire
semisecure-login-reimagined/directory to the/wp-content/plugins/directory - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
- Optionally, navigate to the settings page to re-generate the RSA keypair (a keypair will automatically be generated when you first activate the plugin), choose a secret-key algorithm, uninstall the plugin, or check to see if there were any errors
- If upgrading manually, make sure to disable and then re-enable the plugin (upgrading through the admin interface will do this automatically)
- For best results, make sure your blog’s character encoding is set to UTF-8
- If using a caching plugin, it’s a good idea to clear the cache anytime you upgrade or change the plugin’s settings
Changelog
3.2.0
- Updates to deal with the new network admin area for multisite installs
- Bump required WP version to 3.1
3.1.0.4
- Try to decrypt the password(s) as early as possible during the init hook
3.1.0.3
- Re-hash of 3.1.0.2
3.1.0.2
- Update $_REQUEST as well as $_POST
3.1.0.1
- Modify super admin menu slug
3.1.0
- Add WP 3.0 multisite integration. For a multisite install:
- the settings are applied to all of the sites in your network (as long as the plugin is activated on the site in question)
- only super-admins can modify these global settings
- optionally, you can also enable a few override settings on each individual site in your network
- Remove JavaScript keypair generation
- Password encryption on the user administration pages is now turned on by default
- Remove uninstall tab on the settings page (the WP uninstall.php file is still available)
- Change default RSA keypair size to 2048 bits
- Prefix generic variable/function names in the jsbn library with “jsbn_” (hopefully all the names should be unique and not conflict with anything in the global scope anymore)
- Add a new option to globally force UTF-8 (multisite only)
- Remove public exponent option when generating new keypair
- AdvancedOptions file removed, advanced options have been moved to “defines”
- You can now display the custom integration instructions in a public page with this shortcode: [semisecurelogin_reimagined_integration]
- Bump required WP version to 2.8
Screenshots
For developers
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FAQ
Semisecure Login Reimagined: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 16, 2026
Is Semisecure Login Reimagined free?
Yes. Semisecure Login Reimagined is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Semisecure Login Reimagined safe to use in 2026?
Semisecure Login Reimagined shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 70+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 15 years ago, and scores 32/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Semisecure Login Reimagined?
Semisecure Login Reimagined is active on 70+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 52,065 times since it launched in May 2008. It was downloaded 103 times in the last 30 days.
Does Semisecure Login Reimagined work with WordPress 7.1?
Semisecure Login Reimagined is officially tested up to WordPress 3.1.4, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was Semisecure Login Reimagined last updated?
The latest version, 3.2.0, was released on July 15, 2011 (15 years ago).
Who makes Semisecure Login Reimagined?
Semisecure Login Reimagined is developed and maintained by laceous.
What are the best alternatives to Semisecure Login Reimagined?
The most popular alternatives to Semisecure Login Reimagined are Loginizer (1M+ installs), Redux Framework (900K+ installs) and Admin Menu Editor (300K+ installs).
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