Random User IDs

Description

This WordPress plugin randomizes the user_id for the user created on WordPress setup, removing one potential attack factor from the site.

Since WordPress version 4.9, it also randomizes the ID for all other users created after its setup.
In WordPress versions prior to 4.9, this feature requires installing the patch from WP Issue https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/40545

How it works

Once activated, the plugin will immediately replace the ID for the default admin user (with user ID 1). By default, the plugin will use random user IDs between 1 and 4503599627370495 (to ensure compatibility with Javascript code using the user ID).

All newly created users from that moment will be generated with a random user ID in the defined range.

How to customize the range for new user IDs

You can customize the range used by the plugin for the random generated user IDs by using the WordPress filters dfx_random_user_id_max_id and dfx_random_user_id_min_id.

For example, if you want to have all your user IDs between 1000 and 9999 you can add the following lines to your theme’s functions.php file:

function set_dfx_max_user_id( $default_max_id ) {
    return 9999;
}
add_filter( 'dfx_random_user_id_max_id', 'set_dfx_max_user_id' );

function set_dfx_min_user_id( $default_max_id ) {
    return 1000;
}
add_filter( 'dfx_random_user_id_min_id', 'set_dfx_min_user_id' );

Probably, you’ll want to add these lines to your code before activating the plugin, so your new random main admin user ID is inside your desired range.

Reviews

January 1, 2024
Very useful plugin, but would be much better if setting the desired ID number range was integrated into plugin as a setting rather than relying on a code snippet.
July 29, 2022
I love this plugin. It easily solved a couple problems I was grappling with. It seems like such a simple concept that I’m pretty surprised more developers haven’t come up with something similar. Would very much appreciate seeing confirmation that this plugin is up to date for the latest Wordpress versions.
January 25, 2019 1 reply
Well built and does its job. Easy to customize for shorter ID’s (16 digits was too much for my use, lol). Really a great addition to the WP repo, top-notch, my thanks to the dev! Saved me a nice chunk of time finishing this project 🙂
Read all 5 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Random User IDs” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Random User IDs” has been translated into 2 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

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Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

20201115

  • Adding new filter dfx_random_user_id_min_id to customize the minimum allowed user ID number

20190125

  • Adding new filter dfx_random_user_id_max_id to customize the maximum allowed user ID number

20170720

  • Updating documentation to reflect changes incoming with WordPress version 4.9.

20170526

  • Now the maximum generated ID is Javascript’s MAX_SAFE_INTEGER / 2, so we shouldn’t generate problems with the Javascript layer.