Title: Cannot enable the firewall
Last modified: March 12, 2020

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# Cannot enable the firewall

 *  Resolved [driesplasman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/driesplasman/)
 * (@driesplasman)
 * [6 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-enable-the-firewall/)
 * Hello,
 * I cannot enable the firewall.
 * Error message : The Wordfence Web Application Firewall cannot run. The configuration
   files are corrupt or inaccessible by the web server, which is preventing the 
   WAF from functioning. Please verify the web server has permission to access the
   configuration files.
 * All looks OK to me : [https://gyazo.com/cdedbb2d65c508c8145ed766a19ad1d8](https://gyazo.com/cdedbb2d65c508c8145ed766a19ad1d8)
 * Also : I’m on the latest version of WordPress (and had the exact same issue with
   my previous version)
 * Thanks
    Dries

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  Plugin Support [wfphil](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfphil/)
 * (@wfphil)
 * [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-enable-the-firewall/#post-12579460)
 * Hi [@driesplasman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/driesplasman/)
 * If the permissions are correct then typically this situation will occur if the“
   user/group” owner is different on the Wordfence “wflogs” directory than the user
   WordPress is running as on your site.
 * If you check on the Wordfence “Diagnostics” tab on the Wordfence “Tools” page,
   you’ll see a section there called “PHP Environment” and in there a “Process Owner”
   will be specified. Make a note of the “Process Owner”.
 * You may need to ask your hosting provider for assistance for the next part.
 * If you click on the “wflogs” directory in an FTP client you may be able to see
   an owner that has “user/group” ownership for the “wflogs” directory. You may 
   see numbers instead of the “Process Owner” shown on your Wordfence “Diagnostics”
   page. This doesn’t mean that the ownership is incorrect. If that happens then
   you can login to the server via a SSH (secure shell) command line utility. Check
   that the owner for the “user/group” is the same as the “Process Owner” from your
   Wordfence “Diagnostics” page.
 * If they are different then Wordfence can’t read and write correctly to the “wflogs”
   directory. This can occur if there is a server side cron job on the server that
   is set up to trigger “wp-cron.php” (WordPress scheduled tasks) via PHP. If this
   is the case, that server side cron job can be changed to run via cURL or WGET
   instead of directly via PHP. This will make WordPress cron run more like it was
   intended by WordPress developers, and it will prevent the “wflogs” directory 
   files from getting the wrong “user/group” ownership.
 * Alternatively, you may also be able to fix this by accessing your site via FTP/
   SSH or your hosting control panel file manager and delete the Wordfence “wflogs”
   firewall directory located in the “wp-content” directory.
 * The “wflogs” directory will be automatically recreated when you load any page
   on your site. When you do this your Wordfence Firewall Status will be reset and
   will thus be in Learning mode. You will need to go to the Basic Firewall Options
   section on the All Options page and set the Firewall to Enabled and Protecting
   or run through the Learning mode process again as any custom whitelisted firewall
   parametersyou have saved will have been deleted. Please refer to the Learning
   Mode link below:
 * [https://www.wordfence.com/help/firewall/learning-mode/](https://www.wordfence.com/help/firewall/learning-mode/)

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

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 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [wfphil](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wfphil/)
 * Last activity: [6 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cannot-enable-the-firewall/#post-12579460)
 * Status: resolved