Plugin Author
AITpro
(@aitpro)
@the Hack Repair Guy – actually i think most hosts do regular scanning. I only have personal experience with somewhere around 100 web hosts, but all of those Hosts have scanners. 😉 I think this is just SOP for Hosts to use a scanner. And when i say Hosts i am not referring to fly-by-night and Rogue Hosts – i am talking about the real Hosts. 🙂
Just to reiterate some statistical data.
The release of BPS Pro resulted in very few problems with only 2 Hosts scanners being triggered by whatever coding in BPS Pro caused them to be triggered, which will be sorted out soon. 15,000 successful BPS Pro upgrades with 5 failed upgrades due to scanner problems in the same exact way that BPS/scanner issues are occurring and pretty much the same ratio – 4,000 successful upgrades / 10 isolated incidents/failed upgrades due to the scanner getting triggered by valid and safe (and very simple coding i might add) issue.
So i don’t want to take a very minor issue and blow it out of proportion. Personally some people are upset and that is understandable. Most people do not even know there is any kind of issue going on with scanners because their upgrade installations went flawlessly. 😉
Plugin Author
AITpro
(@aitpro)
@ethical – are you talking to me? Thanks.
And during the upgrade the /wp-content/plugins/bulletproof-security/includes/functions.php file is doing some automated file writing, but the file that is triggering the scanner is the options.php file, which just contains variables that have the htaccess code in strings and there is no automation occurring from that file during the upgrade.
One thing that did significantly change in that options.php file is the Code Format was changed from CR LF Windows to LF UNIX, but i doubt very seriously that this would trigger a scanner because the output itself is where the Code Formatting would come into play when the actual writing occurred to the .htaccess file itself, but just throwing that info in the pot. 😉 I think you are correct that it is a combination of code that is triggering the scanner and not just a single line or block.
Example:
$ForbidSpamBots = "\n# FORBID EMPTY REFFERER SPAMBOTS
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (wp-comments-post\.php)
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^.*$bps_get_domain_root.* [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^$
RewriteRule .* - [F]\n\n";
And the $bps_get_domain_root variable is using a method combined into an fwrite function that has been working for years in previous versions of BPS – yep i have looked at the coding 10,000 times to see if this could be some kind of interpreted “action” that is triggering the scanner and I don’t think this is going to be the case since automation is actually coming from the functions.php file and not the options.php file, which is essentially “static” in that regards (of course PHP is dynamic so you hopefully you get my drift).
“that may be something like having to create different htaccess files based on Hosts”
Which is very similar to what I was asking about in the first place, you know. Hack Repair Guy said it on the first page, too — just say goodbye to that code you claim is “misinterpreted.” It’s obvious they’re getting respect and actual information from you, which is good for those sticking with BPS. But it’s unfortunate you couldn’t extend that courtesy to everyone here.
Given the nature of this thread, honey, I don’t think it’s ME who’s having a bad day. And you seriously owe a HUGE apology to Spock. Dang.
Plugin Author
AITpro
(@aitpro)
@ethical – oops Heartwood’s issue does not have to do with a scanner problem. The problem is with the cPanel HotLink Protection Tool and not your scanner. there are so many folks talking about unrelated issues that this thread has become quite difficult to juggle. 😉 Please read back through the thread and you will see the problem that is occurring for her. Thanks.
Plugin Author
AITpro
(@aitpro)
@sbbn – thank you for your input, but you are bringing emotion into a logical discussion. This is actually very non-productive and non-conducive to troubleshooting. I do not want to offend you and hopefully have not done so. Thank you again for your input.
Plugin Author
AITpro
(@aitpro)
@ethical – oh wow she has both problems going on. ha ha and argh.
I also have namecheap. Am getting warned of “hack” attempts, that seem to coincide with my BPS messin’.
My site only broke when I tried to use the same exact file as the wp-admin .htaccess in my root.
i can’t create secure.htaccess,namecheap seems to auto-delete the secure.htaccess file, even if added manually. but wp-admin secure htaccess creation and enabling works fine..
I will try the steps you mentioned towards the top of the post.
if it doesn’t work out, where can i download the previous version of BPS? tried googlin’ around but couldn’t find it.
steps didn’t work…keep getting “file doesn’t exist or is not writeable when trying to create”…thus, doesn’t exist in the edit section of BPS…
will google some more for .47.4
nm…found it here…thanks for all your time invested… will keep an eye out for .47.6 or a namecheap fix…cheers.
ok so looks like configserver released an update to their scanner for this problem so I have upgraded to that version and hopefully fixes this issue.
John
@damian5000 ask your host to upgrade to the latest CXS scanner version that just came out, it should solve the issue.
Thanks Ethical, I have Namecheap too so this helps me as well.
Damian: My husband downloads copies of plug-ins used on our website to our hard drive after installing them on the blog. I thought it was unnecessary, but it turned out to be REALLY handy to have a 0.47.4 that we could grab and re-install when .5 didn’t work out.
AITpro developer – you were right about hosting provider faulty system. I received e-mail from StableHost which me explain this situation:
A message from my hosting provider StableHost:
Hello John,
The BPF plugin you’re using on your WordPress was causing a false positive on some of the tools we use to detect unusual activities.
This issue has been fixed now and you should not have any problem and if you do please let us know.
Since John at EthicalHost has updated the configserver scanner, I’ve been able to update Bulletproof to v.0.47.5 without a problem, and no longer have any 404 (not-found) errors. (Thanks, John!)
Plugin Author
AITpro
(@aitpro)
@ethical – Thanks for jumping in and taking the reins so quickly and getting this expedited!!!
I would also like to thank the CXS folks for such a quick response to calibrating their scanner – now that is what i call very impressive response time!!!.
On a personal note, when BPS is mistakenly or accidentally blocking something in another plugin because BPS sees something as a threat or vulnerability in that plugin, I try to get a skip/bypass rule out ASAP (usually within a couple of hours). Also I will be purchasing the CXS scanner for my Servers – it looks like fantastic software and obviously the support is stellar.
