Site set to Standard Scan, but is doing High Sensitivity Scan Instead

Hello +ES
Do you mean this warning in one of the alert emails saying: “HIGH SENSITIVITY scanning is enabled, it may produce false positives”?

Could you please make sure that “Enable HIGH SENSITIVITY scanning” option isn’t checked under (Wordfence > Scan > Scan Options and Scheduling > General Options)? also, double check the email alert timestamp to make sure it’s a recent one.

Thanks.

Hi+

Yes, I get that warning in every email.

No, the option checkbox is NOT checked for “Enable HIGH SENSITIVITY scanning”.

Yes, the option checkbox IS checked for “Standard Scan”.

And, yes the most recent email is timestamped “Mon 03/12 1:34pm”.

Please advise. Thank you.

Hello+

I just received another WordFence Notification Email stating, “HIGH SENSITIVITY scanning is enabled…” However, the “High Sensitivity” option is not checked (see above)… Please advise.

Thank you.

Hi,
If you have any caching plugin installed, try to clear cache and re-check this issue, also check if your hosting has any caching module configured for your website, make sure to clear cache from there as well.

Thanks.

Hi+

Yes, there is a caching plugin installed – which I have run several times prior to reaching out to you and during this thread.

No, the hosting does not have any special caching module configured for this account/website.

Please advise. Thank you.

Hi+

I found something that may have been the culprit…

I was looking in:

Wordfence > All Options > Scan Options > Basic Scan Type Options — there you have the 4 large boxes with “limited scan”, “standard scan”, “high sensitivity scan”, and “custom scan”… And there is where I have the “standard scan” option marked.

However, under … > Scan Options > General Options — there you have another checkbox called “enable high sensitivity scanning (may give false positives)” as well… and here I had this checked.

I did not realize that it was checked since it is in a different segment than the “basic scan type options”… I unchecked that 2nd instance and the “High Sensitivity Scan” email alerts seem to have stopped.

That is confusing since I did not have it checked in the first instance and did have it checked in the 2nd instance. May I suggest that you force those 2 instances of basically the same question “enable high sensitivity scanning” to check/uncheck each other when one of them is checked/unchecked. Or better yet, remove the 2nd instance…?

I am marking this as “resolved” and if I get another false alert, then I will open a new ticket.

Thank you for your guidance on this.

Hi,
Thanks for the update, it’s worth to mention also that if you checked “Standard Scan” checkbox then selected “Enable HIGH SENSITIVITY” in General Options, the scan type checkbox will automatically be switched to “Custom Scan” indicating that you don’t have “Standard Scan” selected any more.

Thanks.

Hi+

Actually, that did not fix this issue as I thought… I am still getting these “high sensitivity” alert emails… but, both options are NOT set to High Sensitivity Scan… I have cleared my cache… Please advise.

Hello +ES,
I’ve double checked this issue and discussed all our findings here on this thread with the team and it seems that this could be something that we can fix, I’ve logged it to our dev team for further investigation “internal reference number: #FB6940”.

For now, you can select “Enable HIGH SENSITIVITY scanning” option and click “Save Changes” then uncheck it and click “Save Changes” again and you shouldn’t get this warning in the alert emails.

Thanks.

Hello+

Thank you. I have done as suggested and noticed that when I unchecked the “high Sensitivity” option box it also unchecked 3 line options: the “enable high sensitivity scanning” sentence (this I expected); the “scan images, binary, and other files as if they were executable” (unexpected); and, the “scan files outside your wordpress installation” (also unexpected).

Note: I previously had the 2 checked prior to ever checking the “high sensitivity” option box. And when I did check that box, it automatically checked the “enable high sensitivity scanning” sentence (as expected).

I do want to keep the other 2 sentences checked but not any of the other “high sensitivity” options….

I have left those 2 un-checked for the moment, until I receive an email from WordFence that does not have that “high sensitivity” alert notice included…

Could those other 2 options be causing that alert even though I have the “standard scan” option box checked? Please advise…

Thanks!