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FAQ • Support

Firewall Blocking WordPress Page Edits with Apostrophes or Special Characters

Field Note #165
🔬 Confirmed 🟢 Beginner ⏱ 30 Minutes ✓ Observation from Experience
Observed:
Attempting to update a WordPress page containing a large block of FAQ content (with apostrophes, em dashes, and HTML entities) triggered a GoDaddy Web Application Firewall block, preventing the page from saving. The editor showed a firewall error on submit.

Confirmed cause:
WAF treats certain character patterns in POST requests as potential injection attacks. Large blocks of mixed HTML and punctuation-heavy content are particularly susceptible.

Resolution:
Instead of fighting the WAF, deploy the content as a standalone static HTML file in File Manager (/faq/index.html) with a .htaccess exclusion, bypassing WordPress entirely for that URL.

Generalized lesson:
When WAF blocks a WordPress page edit, don’t assume the content is wrong. Consider whether a static file deployment sidesteps the problem entirely — especially for pages that don’t need WordPress features (forms, dynamic content, login).

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