Updated: 11 October 2026 · Applies to: cPanel & WHM 138, PHP 8.1 to 8.4
No. The always_populate_raw_post_data setting was removed in PHP 7.0, together with the $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA variable it filled. All supported PHP versions (8.1 and newer) ignore it; adding it to php.ini has no effect.
What to use instead
Read the raw request body from the php://input stream. It works in every PHP version:
<?php
$raw = file_get_contents('php://input');
$data = json_decode($raw, true); // for JSON requests
Replace every use of $HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA in the code with this. For multipart/form-data uploads the raw body is not available; use $_POST and $_FILES.
Note: If an old application only works with this setting, it was written for PHP 5.6 or older, which gets no security fixes. Update the application or ask its developer for a current version.
Find old code that still uses it
grep -rnF -e 'HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA' -e 'always_populate_raw_post_data' ~/public_html --include=*.php
Run it in cPanel Advanced › Terminal or over SSH. Each result shows the file and line to change.
