cPanel allows for adding some apache and PHP modules using the web interface (and a script they call easyapache). This can be found under Software > Apache Update
After installing mod_security the main configuration file is found at: /etc/httpd/conf/modsec2.conf which includes a blank file /etc/httpd/conf/modsec2.user.conf
I downloaded the mod_security ruleset from
and copied these to
cp modsec_rules.txt /etc/httpd/conf/modsec2.user.conf
Some of the rules in the user file are already declared in the modsec2.conf file so I was slightly concerned about that but Apache restarted fine and I discovered that the rules from the include file (which came second in order) override the rules in modsec2.conf
Testing it out:
I tested the mod_security component by making the following request which includes a banned word from one of the rules:
http://photo.society.qub.ac.uk/?action=fopen&anotheraction=delete
I received the mod_security error page:
Method Not Implemented
GET to / not supported.
IIS 1.0 Server at the.domain.name 80
