Does OWASP Coraza WAF work on OpenLiteSpeed ​​and CyberPanel?

The question of whether OWASP Coraza WAF works with OpenLiteSpeed and CyberPanel comes up frequently among server administrators. Coraza is an open-source WAF built on modern security principles, fully compatible with seclang syntax and the OWASP Core Rule Set. This makes it flexible across many environments, but that flexibility does not mean it can be installed as a simple plugin inside any web server. Coraza is fundamentally an independent security engine, designed to operate as a pre-request inspection layer rather than a web-server-embedded module.

When examining how Coraza relates to OpenLiteSpeed and CyberPanel, this distinction becomes clearer. CyberPanel uses OpenLiteSpeed as its underlying web server, and official documentation for both platforms mentions ModSecurity when referring to WAF integration. There is no mention of Coraza being natively supported. In fact, within several related communities, users often report that WAF features in OLS are incomplete, unreliable, or limited compared to Nginx or Apache. This reinforces the reality that Coraza cannot simply be “enabled” inside OpenLiteSpeed.

However, this does not mean Coraza cannot be used with OLS. The most reliable and practical approach is to deploy Coraza as a reverse proxy in front of OpenLiteSpeed. All incoming traffic passes through Coraza first, where it is analyzed and filtered according to the OWASP CRS and other seclang rules. Only clean requests are forwarded to OLS. This architecture mirrors how many commercial WAFs operate and aligns perfectly with how Coraza is meant to function.

By running Coraza as an independent WAF layer, you gain flexibility: you can update rules, change protection levels, or enable debugging without touching the web server itself. Although this setup requires additional considerations — such as HTTPS handling, forwarding headers, and addressing false positives — it remains far more stable than attempting to force OLS to use a WAF it was never designed to integrate with.

Direct integration of Coraza into OpenLiteSpeed is not feasible. Coraza currently provides a production-ready module for Caddy, while support for Nginx and other servers is still experimental. No connector exists for OpenLiteSpeed, making embedded integration unsupported and technically impractical.

CyberPanel users who prefer GUI-based simplicity may continue using the ModSecurity options available. But those who want to take advantage of Coraza’s lightweight design and powerful request analysis — without abandoning OpenLiteSpeed — will find the reverse-proxy model ideal. Whether Coraza runs via Docker or as a native system service, routing traffic through it before forwarding to OLS is the correct and secure approach.

In conclusion, Coraza does not run as a native module inside OpenLiteSpeed or CyberPanel, but it can fully operate alongside them when deployed as a front-facing reverse proxy. This setup combines OLS performance with Coraza’s robust inspection engine, delivering a practical and secure solution. If needed, I can also generate ready-to-use configurations or scripts for Docker or Linux to help you deploy Coraza with your current environment.