We notice several conflicts with popular security plugins.
Table of Contents
- iThemes Security
- Sucuri Security
- WP Defender by WPMU DEV
- Still not working?
- NGINX configuration blocks AJAX endpoint
- The ultimate solution when nothing else works
iThemes Security
Reason
When the option Security -> Settings -> Advanced -> System Tweaks -> Disable PHP in Plugins
is enabled, all AJAX calls of the live search will be blocked.
Solution
You could disable this option, but we have a more secure solution. After saving this option, iThemes Security adds the following code to your .htaccess
file:

This line requires a small change to make it work with FiboSearch. We have to exclude the FiboSearch endpoint path from the RewriteRule
. Follow these steps:
Step 1 – Add a custom code
Add the following code snippet to your functions.php
or in the CodeSnippets plugin.
add_filter( 'itsec_filter_apache_server_config_modification', function ( $modification ) { $modification = str_replace( 'RewriteRule ^wp\-content/plugins/.*\.(?:php[1-7]?|pht|phtml?|phps)\.?$ - [NC,F]', 'RewriteRule ^wp\-content/plugins/(?!ajax\-search\-for\-woocommerce\-premium/includes/Engines/TNTSearchMySQL/Endpoints/search\.php).*\.(?:php[1-7]?|pht|phtml?|phps)\.?$ - [NC,F]', $modification ); return $modification; }, PHP_INT_MAX - 5 );
Step 2 – Save iThemes security settings again
Go to Security -> Settings -> Advanced -> System Tweaks
. Uncheck the option “Disable PHP in Plugins” and save settings. Right after that check it again and save settings one more time. Thanks to this, iTheme security should add a changed version of RewriteRule in your .htaccess
file.

As a result, your website will be protected against PHP execution in the plugins directory, but the FiboSearch endpoint will be excluded from these restrictions.
Sucuri Security
Reason
Sucuri security firewall may block AJAX calls of the live search
Solution
- You need to log in to your Sucuri panel https://login.sucuri.net.
- Go to the settings
- Find section Access Control -> whitelist URL
- Add the following URL to the white list:
https://your-domain.com/wp-content/plugins/ajax-search-for-woocommerce-premium/includes/Engines/TNTSearchMySQL/Endpoints/search.php
WP Defender by WPMU DEV
Reason
WP defender may disable PHP execution from the plugins directory. Then AJAX calls of the live search will be blocked.
Solution
Go to Defender -> Recommendations -> Actioned -> Prevent PHP execution and add following file as exception.
search.php
Still not working?
Some security plugins don’t clean up after themselves. Try to check manually if you have security rules added to e.g. .htaccess in the following paths:
wp-content/.htaccess
wp-content/plugins/.htaccess
NGINX configuration blocks AJAX endpoint
Some nginx configurations may block executing PHP files included directly in the plugins directory. There is no one solution. It depends on your NGINX configuration. We recommend contacting your hosting provider and asking to allow to execute the following file:
https://your-domain.com/wp-content/plugins/ajax-search-for-woocommerce-premium/includes/Engines/TNTSearchMySQL/Endpoints/search.php
There are a few samples of nginx config which help other users.
- Adding extra rules to
/usr/local/nginx/conf/wpsecure_${vhostname}.conf
# Whitelist Exception for FiboSearch endpoint location ~ ^/wp-content/plugins/ajax-search-for-woocommerce-premium/includes/Engines/TNTSearchMySQL/Endpoints/ { include /usr/local/nginx/conf/php.conf; }
The ultimate solution when nothing else works
There is a separate guide for cases, where the search endpoint URL is still blocked.