diff --git a/Dockerfile.lsphp b/Dockerfile.lsphp
index c70de7b..588bcf2 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.lsphp
+++ b/Dockerfile.lsphp
@@ -54,6 +54,12 @@ RUN bash -c 'set -e; \
     cp /etc/lsws-templates/lsphp-overrides.ini "$SCAN_DIR/99-prod-overrides.ini"; \
     echo "wrote overrides to $SCAN_DIR"'
 
+## php-lsapi gates .user.ini parsing behind this env var (see entrypoint-lsphp.sh
+## for the full explanation). Set here so the value is visible in `docker inspect`
+## and survives an entrypoint override; the entrypoint re-exports it with the same
+## default so the runuser exec path can't drop it.
+ENV LSPHP_ENABLE_USER_INI=on
+
 EXPOSE 9000
 
 ## TCP-connect + lsphp-alive check (LSAPI isn't FastCGI, so no cgi-fcgi ping).
diff --git a/scripts/entrypoint-lsphp.sh b/scripts/entrypoint-lsphp.sh
index c2f9edb..c75cd17 100644
--- a/scripts/entrypoint-lsphp.sh
+++ b/scripts/entrypoint-lsphp.sh
@@ -78,7 +78,26 @@ export LSAPI_EXTRA_CHILDREN="${LSAPI_EXTRA_CHILDREN:-5}"
 export LSAPI_AVOID_FORK="${LSAPI_AVOID_FORK:-0}"
 LSPHP_BIND="${LSPHP_BIND:-0.0.0.0:9000}"
 
-echo "Container memory: ${CONTAINER_MEMORY_MB}MB | PHP_LSAPI_CHILDREN=${PHP_LSAPI_CHILDREN} | LSAPI_MAX_IDLE=${LSAPI_MAX_IDLE} | PHPVER=${PHPVER} | bind=${LSPHP_BIND}"
+## ---- .user.ini support ----
+## php-lsapi compiles .user.ini support in but leaves it DISABLED by default:
+## sapi/litespeed/lsapi_main.c has `static int parse_user_ini = 0;` and only
+## sets it in PHP_MINIT_FUNCTION(litespeed) when the PROCESS ENV contains
+## LSPHP_ENABLE_USER_INI=on. Without it, lsphp never enters the user-ini chain
+## at all — and does so SILENTLY, because `user_ini.filename` / `user_ini.cache_ttl`
+## still report their core defaults in phpinfo(). Every other WHP PHP tier
+## (cac, cac-fpm, cac-litespeed) honors .user.ini, so leaving it off here made
+## the shared-ols tier quietly inconsistent: customer memory_limit /
+## max_input_vars overrides were ignored, and — the reason this was found —
+## Wordfence's `auto_prepend_file` WAF never loaded on ANY shared-ols site.
+##
+## Exported here rather than relying solely on the Dockerfile ENV because the
+## runuser fallback below resets the environment; an export survives all three
+## exec paths. Still overridable per-container (set LSPHP_ENABLE_USER_INI=off in
+## the site's env) as an escape hatch for a site whose legacy cPanel-generated
+## .user.ini has not been remediated yet.
+export LSPHP_ENABLE_USER_INI="${LSPHP_ENABLE_USER_INI:-on}"
+
+echo "Container memory: ${CONTAINER_MEMORY_MB}MB | PHP_LSAPI_CHILDREN=${PHP_LSAPI_CHILDREN} | LSAPI_MAX_IDLE=${LSAPI_MAX_IDLE} | PHPVER=${PHPVER} | bind=${LSPHP_BIND} | user_ini=${LSPHP_ENABLE_USER_INI}"
 
 ## ---- per-site ini drop-ins (identical mechanism to entrypoint-litespeed.sh) ----
 ## error_log → the same customer-visible path cac:phpNN / cac-litespeed use, so