System error log "loop"

  • Resolved muttznutz

    (@muttznutz)


    10 years, 6 months ago

    Hi,
    I’ve got WordFence 3.8.4 running on my site (although the problem first seemed to manifest under 3.8.3).

    A few days ago, googlebot tried to access a non-existent xml file on my site (this is for a custom post-type, built with Custom Content Type Manager and with the rewrite “slug” set to a different name).

    This generated two initial messages in the system error log :
    [Tue Oct 01 09:15:30 2013] [warn] [client 66.249.75.37] mod_fcgid: stderr: PHP Warning: ksort() expects parameter 1 to be array, integer given in /var/www/vhosts/[site home]/wp-includes/plugin.php on line 397
    [Tue Oct 01 09:15:30 2013] [warn] [client 66.249.75.37] mod_fcgid: stderr: PHP Warning: reset() expects parameter 1 to be array, integer given in /var/www/vhosts/[site home]/wp-includes/plugin.php on line 401

    It then seems to have got into a “loop”, without further http requests :
    [Tue Oct 01 09:15:30 2013] [warn] [client 66.249.75.37] mod_fcgid: stderr: PHP Warning: current() expects parameter 1 to be array, integer given in /var/www/vhosts/[site home]/wp-includes/plugin.php on line 404
    [Tue Oct 01 09:15:30 2013] [warn] [client 66.249.75.37] mod_fcgid: stderr: PHP Warning: next() expects parameter 1 to be array, integer given in /var/www/vhosts/[site home]/wp-includes/plugin.php on line 408

    These last two messages appear to be logged ad infinitum, effectively using all resources.

    Deactivating WordFence stops the log file updates, so it looks as though the problem is rooted there.

    http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Distiple

    (@distiple)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    I am experiencing similar issues on my site.

    Plugin Author Wordfence Security

    (@mmaunder)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    Hi,

    I’ve examined our filter code which relates to the area of the WordPress core code you’ve mentioned and didn’t find anywhere we accidentally use an integer as a filter name. (that would cause this error)

    Can you tell me if you’re running any other plugins and what they are?

    Thanks,

    Mark.

    Distiple

    (@distiple)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    I have an email from my hosting company, which had taken down my site because of this issue, with information regarding the processes running at the time, which clearly shows this was related to wordfence. Also, since disabling wordfence that issue has been resolved.

    I dont want to post the contents of this email because it contains some identfiable information, but perhaps I can answer specific questions.

    Plugin Author Wordfence Security

    (@mmaunder)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    As I mentioned I don’t see anywhere that we’re using integers as filter names, so I think it’s another plugin that is causing this. For example if another plugin registers a filter and has a bug in it’s code, and when Wordfence is activated it causes a new part of core to execute that causes that other plugins bug to show up, that would cause this.

    Can you try activating Wordfence and disabling other plugins to determine if any of those make this go away. Then tell me which one it is and I’ll find the cause.

    Regards,

    Mark.

    Thread Starter muttznutz

    (@muttznutz)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    Hi Mark,
    Thanks for getting back to me.

    I’m afraid that I”m not able to do that, as each instance (effectively) looks like a Denial of Service. I can build a 2gb error log in a few minutes, and my site would then be unavailable until I can get the help desk to shut the process down. Then I’ve got to try another one.
    In any case, the problem seems to be triggered by a googlebot crawl (although keying the url into the browser seemed to trigger the same problem).

    The file that seems to cause the problem for me has been an xml file (possibly a sitemap file – I’m afraid the log’s gone), where the filename represents a custom post type (it’s the “post type” field) created with the Custom Content Type Manager.
    On the “URLs” tab in this plugin, I’ve changed the slug name to a different name.
    This was the only file access around the time of one of the incidents.

    So far as I can tell, the sitemap file (if that is the cause) would be generated by Yoast’s WordPress SEO (on the XML Sitemaps tab).

    You might focus on these two plugins, and maybe someone else can confirm their configurations.

    Hope this helps,

    Drew

    Distiple

    (@distiple)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    If its any help, I also use the Yoast SEO plugin

    Plugin Author Wordfence Security

    (@mmaunder)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    Thanks both of you for the info. I’ve installed yoast on our test server, enabled the XML sitemap, can access the sitemap but am still not seeing the error.

    Can you send me a screenshot of your Wordfence settings page? Post it here or email it to mark at Wordfence.com. I need the full page.

    Regards,

    Mark.

    Thread Starter muttznutz

    (@muttznutz)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    Thanks Mark,
    email sent

    Plugin Author Wordfence Security

    (@mmaunder)

    10 years, 6 months ago

    Thanks Drew, replied. Closing this for now.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • The topic ‘System error log "loop"’ is closed to new replies.