How do I hide the plugin list from my users?

Question

I want to hide my plugin list from my users. How do I do that? They just type /plugins and all plugins are shown. Is there any option to disable this? I am using Essentials.

Answer 1

You should use PluginList.

Answer 2

To completely hide your plugin list from other users you need to do the following:

1. Override the /plugin command.
2. Override the /pl command.
3. Override the /version command.
4. Override the /ver command.
5. Override the /help command.
6. Override the /? command.
7. Override all plugin commands with the string response "Unknown command. Type \"help\" for help." or some response that is equivalent to what an invalid command would also be for all default users.

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Solutions

• Solve problems 1, 2:

Bukkit PluginList plugin should solve 1 and 2 if working correctly, but the users can easily find out your plugins still by using the /? command.

• Reduce the effects of problems 1, 2, 3, 4:

Bukkit Vanilla plugin should at least block the commands associated with 1, 2, 3 and 4. However, if they are blocked, a user will notice that the command response is missing. They still can figure out all your plugins using the /? command.

• Solving problem 5:

Since you already have Essentials, you can override the /help command by placing a help.txt file into the 'Essentials' folder. You need to format the text properly to make it unsuspicious. This only solves the problem with the /help command revealing information.

• Solving problems 1 through 6:

Since you already have Bukkit, the server which Essentials is made for, then you can override commands using the aliases in the 'Bukkit.yml' file. You can override the commands here. For example, if you type the following:

aliases: 
  ?: help
  plugin: help
  pl: help
  version: help
  ver: help

Make sure that you indent the aliases two spaces, then you will successfully have overwritten all those commands with the command help. You may forward these to other commands such as motd, rules, info and alter what they print out by editing 'motd.txt', 'rules.txt', and 'info.txt' in the 'Essentials' folder. However, you may want to use other commands from further plugins to reduce the chance of someone figuring out that you are using Bukkit. An easy way to create a simple text response command is with a plugin like Bukkit MyCommand.

• Solve problem 7:

Use Bukkit MyCommand, Bukkit aliases, and any other plugin you can find or create to override all commands for your plugins that users may use to test to see if that plugin exists. An easy way to do this in general is to simply respond ambiguously for all commands that do not exist as well as commands that the user has no privilege for. This is a sure way to prevent any user from figuring out traces of your plugins, and it does not require you to list out every single possible command for override.

Answer 3

Alternatively, you can use Bukkit Permissions and make the /plugins command an admin or op only command.

Answer 4

You should add permissions so only the specific ranks you want them to do /plugins. The permission node is bukkit.command.plugins.

Or, you can add -bukkit.command.plugins to all groups that you don't want to have permission to /plugins. the - part removes the permission, as /plugins is available by default to every user.

Answer 5

There is a plugin for Spigot which will hide your plugins. I'm not sure if you've solved this problem another way but I found this easier.