How to Disable PHP Functions from WHM Panel?

With the WHM panel, you can disable PHP functions for your hosting server.

Some PHP functions on your web hosting servers pose a risk as hackers use them for malicious purposes. Although they are not hazardous by design, it is better to disable these functions to improve security.

To Disable PHP Functions

1. Log in to your root account of WHM.

2. Select the Software option from the navigation menu.

3. Click on MultiPHP INI Editor.

The MultiPHP INI Editor panel will open.

4. Open the Editor Mode.

5. Select the PHP version from the dropdown list of Edit the INI settings of a PHP version.

The directives consisting of the INI settings for the PHP version will appear.

6. Press Ctrl+f to bring up the “find-box” and type disable_functions.

It will show you the directive to disable the PHP functions.

7. Enter/copy the PHP functions to disable in the given syntax:

disable_functions = “apache_child_terminate,apache_get_modules,apache_note,apache_setenv,define_syslog_variables,disk_free_space,disk_total_space,diskfreespace,dl,escapeshellarg,escapeshellcmd,exec,extract,get_cfg_var,get_current_user,getcwd,getenv,getlastmo,getmygid,getmyinode,getmypid,getmyuid,ini_restore,ini_set,passthru,pcntl_alarm,pcntl_exec,pcntl_fork,pcntl_get_last_error,pcntl_getpriority,pcntl_setpriority,pcntl_signal,pcntl_signal_dispatch,pcntl_sigprocmask,pcntl_sigtimedwait,pcntl_sigwaitinfo,pcntl_strerrorp,pcntl_wait,pcntl_waitpid,pcntl_wexitstatus,pcntl_wifexited,pcntl_wifsignaled,pcntl_wifstopped,pcntl_wstopsig,pcntl_wtermsig,php_uname,phpinfo,popen,posix_getlogin,posix_getpwuid,posix_kill,posix_mkfifo,posix_setpgid,posix_setsid,posix_setuid,posix_ttyname,posix_uname,posixc,proc_close,proc_get_status,proc_nice,proc_open,proc_terminate,ps_aux,putenv,readlink,runkit_function_rename,shell_exec,show_source,symlink,syslog,system”

It will look something like this:

8. Click Save.

WHM will display a message saying it has disabled the PHP functions.

Here are some of the potentially unsafe PHP functions you should disable for your WHM/cPanel server:

To know more about these PHP functions, refer to the PHP site at http://php.net/