CleanTalk suddenly causing MySQL service and CPUs to max out

Resolved sproutchris
(@sproutchris)

5 months, 2 weeks ago

Early yesterday morning our site crashed. I looked at our server’s diagnostics and discovered all 32 CPU’s were 100% maxed out by the MySQL service. I took a look at what queries were currently being run using SHOW FULL PROCESSLIST; and it was only a list of CleanTalk queries, so I disabled the plugin and the server resources returned back to normal. If I reenabled the plugin, it doesn’t take very long before all the server resources get eaten right back up again.

I have this plugin active on several different sites and servers and I don’t seem to be running into this issue anywhere else (yet at least). I also have it running in a couple duplicate dev environments of the site its causing to crash and it seems to be running normally. I also don’t know what I could have done to trigger the issue since it happened out of nowhere. I hadn’t updated this or any other plugin and I hadn’t deployed other any changes to the site.

Testing badly in CleanTalk 6.55 and 6.56 in WordPress 6.8.1 on PHP 8.3.21 with MySQL 8.0.42-33.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 18 total)

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Plugin Support SergeM
(@serge00)

5 months, 2 weeks ago

Hello @sproutchris,

I assume that the Anti-Spam plugin decided to switch methods of using cookies. Please, set the method to “ON” manually:
• WordPress Admin Page → Settings → Anti-Spam by CleanTalk → Advanced settings → set the option “Set cookies” to “On” → Save Changes.

Did it help?

If not, further troubleshooting requires more details about the issue you mentioned. Please, create a private ticket:
https://cleantalk.org/my/support/open

Thread Starter sproutchris
(@sproutchris)

5 months, 2 weeks ago

@serge00 I possibly might be able to turn on the plugin in the middle of the night during low traffic hours, but is there a way to adjust the setting you want me to without having to turn on the plugin? If I turn it on, it would be a race to navigate to the plugin options and quickly find and edit the one you want me to and save before the server crashes.

Plugin Support katereji
(@katereji)

5 months, 2 weeks ago

@sproutchris let’s hold off on enabling anything or changing any settings for now, as there’s no definite information that it will resolve the issue. We’re currently investigating the problem in more detail and will update you as soon as we have the results.

Plugin Support vadimcleantalk
(@usr1)

5 months, 1 week ago

Hello @sproutchris!

We’ve resolved the issue on our side. Please install the updated version of the plugin from the link below and check if everything is working as expected: https://github.com/CleanTalk/wordpress-antispam/releases/download/fix-version/cleantalk-spam-protect.zip

How to install the plugin manually:
https://cleantalk.org/help/install-wordpress

Please let us know if everything is working properly now.

Thread Starter sproutchris
(@sproutchris)

5 months, 1 week ago

Sorry I have been swamped and unavailable to test the update you have provided. I did notice there was an official subversion release of the plugin today – does that release include the fix that’s in this fix version you have provided here?

Plugin Support vadimcleantalk
(@usr1)

5 months, 1 week ago

Hello @sproutchris,

Yes, the latest release of the plugin already includes the fix — there’s no need to install the ZIP manually anymore. Let us know how it works once you have a chance to test it.

Thread Starter sproutchris
(@sproutchris)

5 months ago

Actually, I’m mistaken. I confused the update released of the separate and different “Security by CleanTalk” plugin with an update to this plugin. The newest version of the plugin is still 6.56 and I had tested that version and did hit the issue (I documented this in my original post). What version of the plugin were you referring to that allegedly includes your working resolution?

Plugin Support amagsumov
(@amagsumov)

5 months ago

Hello @sproutchris,

I apologize for the misunderstanding.

We recently released a new version of our Security plugin, which is a different plugin. We will release a new version of the Anti-Spam plugin, including the fix for your issue, within the next two days.

In the meantime, you can manually install the fix version directly from this link: https://github.com/CleanTalk/wordpress-antispam/releases/download/fix-version/cleantalk-spam-protect.zip

Thank you.

Thread Starter sproutchris
(@sproutchris)

5 months ago

The fix does seem to work. My CPUs are no longer getting maxed out by MySQL after updating the plugin to the provided fixed version.

Plugin Support amagsumov
(@amagsumov)

5 months ago

Hello @sproutchris,

Thank you for your feedback.

If something goes wrong, please let us know.

Thread Starter sproutchris
(@sproutchris)

5 months ago

Because this caused our website some downtime, would you mind providing an explanation as to what the cause of this issue was and why we’re no longer at risk of it happening again? We’ve had a lot of good results from using this plugin, but after this incident, our team unfortunately feels hesitant to continue with your product without a reassurance that our site isn’t going to randomly go down again in the future without warning because of this plugin. I hope you can understand where we’re coming from.

Plugin Support amagsumov
(@amagsumov)

5 months ago

The root cause of the issue was a failure in the cleanup mechanism responsible for purging outdated session records from the “sessions” table. Over time, this led to a buildup of stale data, which eventually impacted performance and resulted in the unexpected downtime you experienced.

We’ve since resolved the problem by fixing the cleanup process to ensure session data is properly and consistently removed going forward.

Thank you.

Plugin Support katereji
(@katereji)

5 months ago

Hello @sproutchris

We have released a new version of the plugin 6.57.1 with fixes for this issue. You can now update the plugin as usual.

If you face any issues please let us know.
Thread Starter sproutchris
(@sproutchris)

4 months, 4 weeks ago
I just tried updating another one of our sites from 6.55 to 6.57.2 and it caused the same issue that made the previous site crash. After installing the update, the CPU’s all maxed out to 100% and nothing in the site would run.

I ran a show processlist query in my MySQL client and it’s throwing the same bunch of CleanTalk queries it was from before on my other site/server. Here’s a list I collected at one point after installing the plugin update:
```
Query                                                                   Time (ms)
SELECT value FROM wp_cleantalk_sessions WHERE id = 'c6c9bf0ec620dff8'	8852
SELECT value FROM wp_cleantalk_sessions WHERE id = '884c0ff14561f5d0'	5275
SELECT value FROM wp_cleantalk_sessions WHERE id = 'b5e71e6067ad036a'	8488
SELECT value FROM wp_cleantalk_sessions WHERE id = 'ec131c6c9123bfa3'	7495
SELECT value FROM wp_cleantalk_sessions WHERE id = '4750b3a2be03dbc0'	6626
SELECT value FROM wp_cleantalk_sessions WHERE id = 'a3ad1c15ebc41742'	6639
SELECT value FROM wp_cleantalk_sessions WHERE id = '41f4ae956ecf7edc'	6539
SELECT value FROM wp_cleantalk_sessions WHERE id = '1bc17b3df2d0692f'	6263
SELECT value FROM wp_cleantalk_sessions WHERE id = '0f595a1b67e20ef0'	3747
SELECT value FROM wp_cleantalk_sessions WHERE id = '2f01cb11346f4760'	4816
SELECT value FROM wp_cleantalk_sessions WHERE id = '2f01cb11346f4760'	5056
SELECT value FROM wp_cleantalk_sessions WHERE id = 'bfd6fb8ac4f1ee47'	3281
```
- This reply was modified 4 months, 4 weeks ago by sproutchris. Reason: queries list clarity
Plugin Support eugenecleantalk
(@eugenecleantalk)

4 months, 4 weeks ago

Thank you. In this case it may be important to reinstall rather than update the plugin. I.e. by uninstalling the old version first. Please confirm that you have done so.

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