Strange error when trying to preview or update an exisiting page

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bmchenrync
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Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 8:27 pm

Strange error when trying to preview or update an exisiting page

Post by bmchenrync »

For some reason certain pages on my forum give a message as follows and goes to the default error page for the website??!!
  • NOTE: ... <website> i inserted where my website is listed
<website>board/posting.php?mode=edit&p=1394 76.253.187.124 /board/posting.php?mode=edit&p=1394 <website>" Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/131.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

anyone seen this?
i suspect it might be an issue in an older forum posting that the latest update can't display and doesn't identify what the error is?
The page displays fine and all i am trying to do is change a link?!!

anyone have any idea?

thank you for any assistance.

usnig latest 3.3.14

brian
bmchenrync
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Re: Strange error when trying to preview or update an exisiting page

Post by bmchenrync »

more information
this is the page i am trying to modify a bad link
Over 65 years of McHenry Highway Safety Publications

when i simply open to edit and click Preview
I get the strange error
bmchenrync
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Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 8:27 pm

Re: Strange error when trying to preview or update an exisiting page

Post by bmchenrync »

to add additional information

1) it only occurs on a few pages
all other pages work as normal
2) if i try more than a few posts, then my webhost server IP blocks me and when i go to unblock it gives message below
mod security rule.jpg
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
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thecoalman
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Re: Strange error when trying to preview or update an exisiting page

Post by thecoalman »

The information you need is in the last post, it's mod_security which for some reason is triggering on something in those posts. mod_security is a service running on your web server that will block exploits, sometimes it gets it wrong.

You can check in your hosting control panel where you might be able to disable it but this should be temporary solution. mod_security uses a set of rules threshold based so it could actually be a few rules being triggered that cumulatively block you, The rule being triggered might be available in your server error logs. Whatever the case if this is shared hosting it's unlikely you can do anything about it other than fully disable it.

Contact your host and they can modify or disable the rule, if you disabled mod_security turn it back on after the fix.
“Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I have found several thousand things that won’t work.”

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bmchenrync
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Posts: 35
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 8:27 pm

Re: Strange error when trying to preview or update an exisiting page

Post by bmchenrync »

thank you
ahhh the joys of trying to share information with the world while also trying to thwart nefarious actors bots gnomes etc.


thank you!
I will try
  • disable
  • make the edit/change
  • reenable!
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NeoDev
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Re: Strange error when trying to preview or update an exisiting page

Post by NeoDev »

It's possible your host is using the Core Rule Set for ModSecurity, if so, installing the phpBB exclusion plugin for the rule set should solve most problems with ModSecurity.
Come for the comics, stay for the bad fish puns.
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thecoalman
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Re: Strange error when trying to preview or update an exisiting page

Post by thecoalman »

My WHM server uses OWASP core rule set and unless there was configuration changes by my host for initial setup they are default. Very few false positives over the years. Might be 3 or 4 or rules at most I have had to disable.

That's interesting there is a plugin for phpBB but most of the users here can't install mod_security plugins. If you are on shared hosting this is not an option.
“Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I have found several thousand things that won’t work.”

Attributed - Thomas Edison

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