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[$25 reward] Cpanel account - HTTP 500 Error almost every day - why?
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[$25 reward] Cpanel account - HTTP 500 Error almost every day - why?

$25 reward to the person with a solution on this issue. Paid with Paypal.

We have a Cpanel server with lots of accounts on it. Most of the users have wordpress accounts.
Last week one WordPress site was showing a HTTP 500 error and the site was offline. It only shows an empty page/500 Error page. No other users have any issue on the same server.

We did restore the cpanel account backup - and the page was up again.

The next day the site was just showing HTTP 500 Error again.

We did then restore the cpanel backup and the site was online again. We did change the cpanel and FTP password. We did also change the wordpress admin passwod we got from the customer.

The next day the site had the HTTP 500 error again.

We restored the backup, change wordpress admin password. We did then update wordpress and all plugins/themes for the customer. (some was around one year old)
We did not give the customer any of the new passwords.

The site then worked fine Wednesday, Thursday, Friday but on Saturday the site got the 500 Error message again.

On Monday we restored the backup, now also disabling their guestbook - since we could see in the site logs that the last log entry before the 500 Error message was an guestbook entry.

Tuesday the site was offline again. We restore the backup, and one more time I disabled the guestbook, and also disabled commenting in Wordpress, and also deleted around 19.000 SPAM comments.

The site worked fine from Tuesday to yesterday. But today the site has the 500 HTTP error again.

We have also let the webdesigner of the site look at all source code on Wordpress and all plugins and they says that they do not see any issues with the source code.

Why do this happen, not every day, but several times per week? Why do a account restore in cpanel fix the issue, without doing anything on the server?
Is it some kind of hacking of the WordPress installation? Is it a server issue, if yes, why is only one of around 200 sites affected?

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Comments

  • WHTWHT Member

    Redirection issue or hits the cloudlinux resources. Read the apache errors first

    Thanked by 2myhken Asim
  • Add this to config

    define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);

    Thanked by 2myhken ehab
  • rm_rm_ IPv6 Advocate, Veteran

    myhken said: we could see in the site logs

    So you checked access.log of the web server, but what about error.log? Should be more detailed information about the cause of Error 500 in there.

    Thanked by 2Falzo myhken
  • FalzoFalzo Member

    @rm_ said:

    myhken said: we could see in the site logs

    So you checked access.log of the web server, but what about error.log? Should be more detailed information about the cause of Error 500 in there.

    I agree, before restoring from backup there probably is more examination needed of what is causing this. without checking the log-files more deeply one can only guess.

    ofc you can also try to add further restrictions like installing/using wordfence, which at least might add to the logging level and is able to check core files against the main repository for changes and such.

    but still I'd strongly suggest working through the error-logs, the 500 error must have a more detailed cause pointing to malicious or altered files, changed permissions or whatsoever...

    Thanked by 1myhken
  • You should be able to find the cause in error_logs

    Thanked by 1myhken
  • bapbap Member

    awesome $25 reward

  • @myhken

    500 error will be caused by many reasons so a tip from the error log could help..
    some of the possible reasons:

    1- WordPress brute force bots causing (DoS)
    2- PHP error by a plugin/theme.

    please pastebin your error logs for further investigations.

  • Sounds like a hack

  • AndreiGhesiAndreiGhesi Member
    edited March 2018

    "It only shows an empty page/500 Error page"

    That is caused by a theme/plugin who is getting hacked non-stop.
    Check error_logs in account ftp, you should identify the cause very easy.

    Send the reward to [email protected] :)

    Thanks.

  • check domain/ftp/error logs and see if any thing suspicious.

  • @AndreiGhesi said:
    "It only shows an empty page/500 Error page"

    That is caused by a theme/plugin who is getting hacked non-stop.
    Check error_logs in account ftp, you should identify the cause very easy.

    Send the reward to [email protected] :)

    Thanks.

    I certainly wouldn't give $25 for someone to tell me to check the logs.

    Thanked by 3MasonR Aidan Mitsuhashi
  • MasonRMasonR Community Contributor

    @doghouch said:

    @AndreiGhesi said:
    "It only shows an empty page/500 Error page"

    That is caused by a theme/plugin who is getting hacked non-stop.
    Check error_logs in account ftp, you should identify the cause very easy.

    Send the reward to [email protected] :)

    Thanks.

    I certainly wouldn't give $25 for someone to tell me to check the logs.

    Especially since 5 people before him said the same thing...

    Thanked by 2Aidan Mitsuhashi
  • Thank you for all replies. I will use your tips and also check logs tomorrow and then see.
    I also think this is a hack/attack. Since it's the only site at our account with this issue.
    But I did create this thread because if it was a server issue - we have to pay if we tell the customer to get their webdesigner to work on their site - if they conclude that it's nothing wrong with their wordpress, plugsins and themes - just a issue on our server.

    I will look into the logs before I will give a recommendation to the customer to contact their webdesigner.

    We only sell unmanaged hosting from a shared cpanel server. So we have no responsible to update customers wordpress installations and/or plugins and themes.

    If any tips beside looking in logs fix the issue - I will pay. And if the solution is clear as day in the logs, I will pay the first that mention looking in the logs. ;)

    Thanked by 1Mitsuhashi
  • When the website is getting HTTP 500 error again, try to manually disable all plugins by renaming plugins dir (/wp-content/plugins) to plugins.deactivate, then reload the website. If the website loaded fine, then this is not your server issue.

    Thanked by 2kkrajk myhken
  • DewlanceVPSDewlanceVPS Member, Patron Provider

    @myhken said:
    Is it some kind of hacking of the WordPress installation? Is it a server issue, if yes, why is only one of around 200 sites affected?

    One and only one issue cause 500 error - Lack of memory or process is killed by Firewall (CSF)

  • imokimok Member

    WHAT?

    Hacked? Not enough resources? Server misconfiguration? CSF?

    Who gives more?

  • FoxelVoxFoxelVox Member
    edited March 2018

    Could be a Hell load of things

    Firewall/lack of memory/DB corrupt (as @dewlancevps stated)

    Layer7 ddos attack, Hacked or backdoored plug-in/theme

    Honestly, i dont think the error logs would show anything, bruteforce logs might

    Thanked by 2myhken DewlanceVPS
  • PieHasBeenEatenPieHasBeenEaten Member, Host Rep
    edited March 2018

    Lets just make easy just give me the 25 dollars and ill act like i will fix it.

  • I will be happy to look into it and get it resolved for you, no fee required (obviously).

    Most of the times, a 500 error is generated by some php/webserver error. As it is wordpress, it can be any of these things:

    1. Some bot attacks ( to resolve, use wordfence to block bots, disable xmlrpc if not using plugins like jetpack).

    2. Some plugin getting auto updated and causing any fatal error. Renaming the plugin directory when the site is giving 500 Error will confirm if any of the plugins are causing the issue

    3. Some plugin changing/editing the htaccess rules. When the site is down, rename/remove the htaccess file in the wordpress root directory and check if it comes back again.

    4. Site using too much resources (though least likely reason).

    Hope it helps.

    Thanked by 3myhken Falzo ElliotJ
  • @imok said:
    WHAT?

    Not enough resources? Server misconfiguration? CSF?

    Who gives more?

    give this man the money.

    @op check apache/php process you might out of memory if yes then you need to increase max memory on php.ini. for example if you send (POST) / GET request too large text to php site it'll cause 500 error.

    • enable debug mode on apache.
    Thanked by 1myhken
  • I'd take a look at error logs for the site. See what you are seeing. Go to the link that is causing the 500 as well, and see if it is spitting out an error.

    https://www.lifewire.com/500-internal-server-error-explained-2622938

    Thanked by 1myhken
  • @Coffee said:
    When the website is getting HTTP 500 error again, try to manually disable all plugins by renaming plugins dir (/wp-content/plugins) to plugins.deactivate, then reload the website. If the website loaded fine, then this is not your server issue.

    See that you are the second person mention this, so I will do that as soon as the site get's the 500 Error again. Most likely tomorrow - but it can also take some days.

  • MikePTMikePT Moderator, Patron Provider, Veteran

    I'll fix it for free just for the sake of it.

  • @MikePT said:
    I'll fix it for free just for the sake of it.

    yeah situation like this is itchy. but it seem @myhken just to make sure if this problem is from his client (customer) side, not service (provider)

    Thanked by 1MikePT
  • deankdeank Member, Troll

    Give 25 bucks to everyone who posted here. And that includes me.

  • I was hoping the 25 bucks would be split between 25 posts!

  • Of course today the site still is online. Don't think I have fixed anything - so just have to wait to the next time the site gets the 500 HTTP error.

  • DewlanceVPSDewlanceVPS Member, Patron Provider

    @myhken said:
    Of course today the site still is online. Don't think I have fixed anything - so just have to wait to the next time the site gets the 500 HTTP error.

    You can reproduce this by opening many URLs of your site in browser. Open 10+ pages at same time. If your server don't have high limit then it will start showing errors.

    Thanked by 1myhken
  • @DewlanceVPS said:

    @myhken said:
    Of course today the site still is online. Don't think I have fixed anything - so just have to wait to the next time the site gets the 500 HTTP error.

    You can reproduce this by opening many URLs of your site in browser. Open 10+ pages at same time. If your server don't have high limit then it will start showing errors.

    I tried to open 20+ pages at once without any issues. A proof that's it's nothing wrong with our server?

  • imokimok Member

    Did you check the error logs?

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