Can’t optimize Wordfence Firewall with php-fpm/FastCGI enabled

Hello @skullman01 and thanks for reaching out to us!

I was just reviewing your diagnostic report and saw that your auto_prepend_file is not set.

It says your Server API is FPM/FastCGI and the default configuration for FastCGI should have worked. However, on some sites with PHP FPM, we do sometimes see situations where the settings are being overridden. This is from our documentation:

In rare cases, when a host uses PHP-FPM, they may have PHP settings defined in a “pool” file. These settings can override options set in your custom php.ini or .user.ini file. You may need to ask the host if they have settings in the pool file. The default location for the pool file on new Ubuntu servers is similar to /etc/php/7.0/fpm/pool.d/www.conf (depending on the PHP version) and an example of an option that would override your auto_prepend_file option is php_admin_value[auto_prepend_file] = none. If the host is able to remove this option, it should allow your settings to be used for the firewall.

So I would at this point recommend that you reach out to your host and ask them this:

I need to set a PHP value auto_prepend_file on my site but it doesn’t seem to be taking effect. Can you explain how to set auto_prepend_file on my site?

Hopefully, they’ll be able to give you an idea of why it’s not working.

Let me know what you find!

Thanks!

Thank you @wfadam for your reply.

Before asking to your support I have alredy open a ticket to my host with the exactly same link that you have mentioned.

Now I have pasted your reply on my ticket hoping that it can help my host to address the issue.

I will update you as soon as possible when my host will reply to my open ticket.

Thank you very much for your support.

Gabriele

Let me know what you find @skullman01

Thanks again!

Dear @wfadam my host replies that auto_prepend is not configurable by me because is used by the system to do something else.

So I think that I must continue with basic protection: am I right?

In order for the WAF to function correctly, it will need set in the auto_prepend_file value.

What did your host mention was currently using the function?

They don’t mention anything.

I will try to ask them major details.

Thanks @skullman01

Just let me know what they find!

Dear @wfadam , sorry for the delay.

My site is on a shared hosting.

My provider told me that auto_prepend_file directive is used by the Varnish cache so it’s not possible to enable the extended protection feature.

I’m hoping that they solve this problem becuase they provide on their forums, faqs (1 faq really) to configure wordfence plugin, so it seems that wordfence can run without problems but it’s not true.

I will mark this thread as “resolved” because, at the end, is not a wordfence issue.

Thank you very much for your support.

Gabriele

Thanks for sharing this information with us @skullman01

If they do release a fix, could you let us know?

Thanks again for your support!

Sure.