3rd Party Plugin Compatibility: iThemes Security

[raamdev]

Some users have reported issues running iThemes Security with ZenCache. I'm creating this GitHub issue so that we can track progress towards testing and improving (if necessary) compatibility between ZenCache and iThemes Security.

If you're experiencing an issue with these two plugins, please leave a comment below with as much information about the problem as possible. Please also include version numbers for both plugins.

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2017-01-03 Update: See https://github.com/websharks/comet-cache/issues/606#issuecomment-270279102

[lkraav]

I've been running ITS and ZCP in parallel for an extensive period of time. I don't recall any caching incident that can be attributed to ITS. The only thing to watch out for might be the "force SSL" configuration options that ITS provides. In theory I guess there could be a scenario where this results in browser blocking http stylesheets etc loaded over https, because the caching plugin was confused about which protocol cache needs to be served.

[raamdev]

@lkraav Great! Thank you for the feedback. :-)

[MarioKnight]

I've also been running ITS and ZCP on most client sites, and I don't recall any issue that was caused by the two of them coexisting. One thing that should be noted is that if someone makes any change to ITS's "WordPress Tweaks" section, they should clear the cache afterwards to see these changes take effect.

[raamdev]

@MarioKnight Thank you for the feedback! :-)

[Ishmayl]

I know this is old, but I just wanted to chime in. This may be from the lack of my knowledge in comet cache or ithemes (or both), but every day, I get an ithemes warning about files changed/deleted that are related to comet cache. I feel like I must be missing a setting somewhere, but every day, a get the warning with every one of my site's pages (looking like this: wp-content/cache/comet-cache/cache/http/my-site/one-of-my-page-names.html). Is there some way around this? Thanks

[raamdev]

@Ishmayl If there's a way to exclude the cache directory (wp-content/cache/) from iTheme's security check, that would be the best solution. The cache directory is meant to change constantly. Every single time Comet Cache creates a cache for a page on your site, it's going to write or change files in the cache directory — that's how caching works.

It sounds to me like this is an issue with iThemes Security, as it should really take into consideration the fact that the wp-content/cache/ directory is going to be written to very frequently if you have a caching plugin installed and that's entirely normal and expected (i.e., not something that warrants displaying a notification IMO).

[renzms]

@raamdev

Unable to reproduce major bug or find any major compatibility issues

Tested Using:

WordPress Version: 4.7 Current WordPress Theme: Twenty Seventeen version 1.0 Active Plugins: Comet Cache Cache Pro Version 161227 + iThemes Security Version 6.0.0 PHP Version: 7.0.10-2+deb.sury.org~xenial+1 MySQL Version: 10.0.28-MariaDB-0ubuntu0.16.04.1

Comet Cache appears to be running fine.

Manually clearing the cache works fine and causes no issues.

Enabled most recommended settings in the Lite version

Enabled and tweaked SSL settings

This did not interfere with any login settings or the front end sites while Comet Cache Pro + iThemes Security was active.

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Minor issues

The obvious minor issue would be the logs constantly updating if an admin wished to be notified of any file changes.

This can be solved by adding the cache folder as an exclusion in the Detect File Changes settings

I've also tested with the Auto Cache Engine running and Automatic Cache Clearing. Please note though that the cache does not Automatically clear when changing/updating settings in iThemes Security. I believe the cache should be cleared after a change as some tweaks in the iThemes Security deal with the front end, such as forcing SSL, disabling jquery, restricting comments, restricting access to or visibility of specific pages/posts (user archives, 404 pages, old archived posts, etc.)

Deactivating the plugin does clear the cache.

This issue can be left open though if you feel more extensive tests should be made.

[raamdev]

@renzms writes...

Please note though that the cache does not Automatically clear when changing/updating settings in iThemes Security. I believe the cache should be cleared after a change as some tweaks in the iThemes Security deal with the front end

I agree. That's something that we can do to improve compatibility.

The obvious minor issue would be the logs constantly updating if an admin wished to be notified of any file changes.

This can be solved by adding the cache folder as an exclusion in the Detect File Changes settings

That sounds like a great candidate for a KB Article. Would you mind drafting one for me with those notes? Title: "Is Comet Cache compatible with iThemes Security?"

[renzms]

That sounds like a great candidate for a KB Article. Would you mind drafting one for me with those notes? Title: "Is Comet Cache compatible with iThemes Security?"

@raamdev

Sure thing! I'll try and take some updated screens to go with it.

[amgleft]

Hey I was having a problem with a site of mine — it wouldn't load. I was getting errors like this: "Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 268435456 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 20480 bytes) in /home/yoursite.com/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php on line 291" and when I disabled Comet Cache via ftp the problem stopped and the site loaded fine.

here’s what I did that seems to have everything working again:

1. I made sure everything was up to date.
2. deactivated iThemes Security.
3. Moved CCP back into the plugins folder via FTP (had previously moved it out in order to get the site back up)
4. Activated CCP and cleared the Cache
5. Reactivated iThemes Security

Also I checked to make sure the site was working in between each of those steps. All seems to be working now.

I Hope this helps someone. It worked for me, but it'd be good to know why it was happening in the first place. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure, as they say.

[raamdev]

@amgleft Thanks so much for sharing that! Hopefully that will help someone who comes across this. 😄