Title: Spam Filter Causing 403&#8217;s
Last modified: November 25, 2019

---

# Spam Filter Causing 403’s

 *  [Corey Kretsinger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/corey-kretsinger/)
 * (@corey-kretsinger)
 * [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/spam-filter-causing-403s/)
 * The following code being added to .htaccess now causes 403’s whenever anyone 
   tries to leave a comment. This happens on Litespeed/Centos7 with php 7.3 and 
   the latest WP/iThemes security.
 * I’ve removed this code from all websites as a result. That fixed the issue for
   me, but figured I would report it.
 * ——-BAD HTACCESS ENTRY———
 * <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
 *  # Reduce Comment Spam – Security > Settings > WordPress Tweaks > Comment Spam
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} POST RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /wp-comments-post\.
   php$ RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https?://(([
   ^/]+\.)?mysite\.com|jetpack\.wordpress\.com/jetpack-comment)(/|$) [NC] RewriteRule
   ^.* – [F] </IfModule>

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  [beardedginger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/beardedginger/)
 * (@beardedginger)
 * [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/spam-filter-causing-403s/#post-12202132)
 * Hi,
 * Thank you for bringing our attention to this. I will be sure to pass this information
   on to the developers.
 * Thanks,
 * Matt

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘Spam Filter Causing 403’s’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/better-wp-security/assets/icon.svg?rev=2980272)
 * [Solid Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection](https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-wp-security/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-wp-security/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-wp-security/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/better-wp-security/reviews/)

 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [beardedginger](https://wordpress.org/support/users/beardedginger/)
 * Last activity: [6 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/spam-filter-causing-403s/#post-12202132)
 * Status: not resolved