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8G Firewall ​

Overview ​

8G Firewall is a set of HTTP request filtering rules based on the Perishable Press 8G Firewall. When enabled, the web server blocks requests that look like attacks (SQL injection, XSS, probing for sensitive files…) and malicious bots before they reach your application.

The feature supports websites running on Nginx and Apache. The 8G Firewall tile is not shown for alias websites or on servers that use OpenLiteSpeed.

What does 8G Firewall block? ​

  • Malicious query strings: URL parameters containing SQL injection patterns, suspicious base64 encoding, and dangerous characters.
  • Suspicious paths: requests for configuration files, backup files, shell files, and other commonly probed paths.
  • Malicious user agents: known bad bots, scanners, and scrapers.
  • Malicious referrers: requests coming from known bad referrer domains.
  • Malicious cookies: cookies containing characters used for code injection.
  • Unsafe HTTP methods: CONNECT, DEBUG, MOVE, TRACE, and TRACK.

Blocked requests receive a 403 Forbidden error (blocked HTTP methods on Nginx receive 405). Normal traffic is not affected.

Enable 8G Firewall ​

  1. Open the website's Overview page.
  2. In the Utilities group, click the 8G Firewall tile.
  3. In the dialog, click Enable 8G Firewall.
  4. Wait for the process to finish.

Once enabled, the 8G Firewall tile shows a green check mark and the dialog shows the message 8G Firewall has been activated. The rules are added to the website's web server configuration.

Disable 8G Firewall ​

  1. Open the website's Overview page.
  2. In the Utilities group, click the 8G Firewall tile.
  3. In the dialog, click Disable 8G Firewall.
  4. Wait for the process to finish.

Troubleshooting ​

Legitimate requests are blocked ​

Occasionally, 8G Firewall may block legitimate requests, for example a form or admin page that sends parameters with special characters. If a page or feature returns 403 Forbidden after you enable it:

  1. Repeat the action and note the URL that fails.
  2. For websites on Apache, open the Apache > Access Log menu and look for lines with status 403 for that URL.
  3. Disable 8G Firewall and try again. If the action now works, 8G Firewall was blocking it by mistake.
  4. Enable 8G Firewall again once you have resolved the issue, or keep it disabled if that feature is essential to your website.

TIP

Websites on Nginx do not write an access log by default, so the quickest way to confirm a false positive is to disable 8G Firewall and try again as in step 3.

Learn more ​