Title: Errors in bad bot blocking
Last modified: August 31, 2016

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# Errors in bad bot blocking

 *  Resolved [CoolDavidoff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cooldavidoff/)
 * (@cooldavidoff)
 * [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/errors-in-bad-bot-blocking/)
 * This is NOT a support request, we don’t need support, we simply turned off the
   feature.
 * Hi Michael,
    just to let you know in case no one did: the new bad bot blocking
   feature has errors, it blocks our own site (client site).
 * I just reviewed th elogs (first time) and all log entries are blocking the client’s
   own site (this is why traffic gone down so much). Example for (hundreds/thousands
   of these):
    2016-02-12 16:47:29 Blocked bot with IP [client IP] — matched user
   agent WordPress/4.4.2 [that’s installed wp yes]; [https://[client](https://[client)
   site] found in blocklist.
 * Thought you will want to know. If you need anything else let me know.
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/)

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  Thread Starter [CoolDavidoff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cooldavidoff/)
 * (@cooldavidoff)
 * [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/errors-in-bad-bot-blocking/#post-7058985)
 * Well, much worse than that:
    I UNticked block bad bots, saved, and promply am
   thrown out of our site, admin and even frontend: You have no right to access 
   this page.
 * That frankly is a mess!
 *  Plugin Support [Steve M](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpsmort/)
 * (@wpsmort)
 * [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/errors-in-bad-bot-blocking/#post-7058991)
 * Please email us the logs to support [at] semperfiwebdesign.com and we can take
   a look. We’ve not seen this behavior on any other site before.
 *  Thread Starter [CoolDavidoff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cooldavidoff/)
 * (@cooldavidoff)
 * [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/errors-in-bad-bot-blocking/#post-7059044)
 * Hey Steve, I documented all steps.
 * – So, when you rolled out the bad bot feature you set default to enable.
    – When
   I noticed your feature today I at first ticked via htaccess. – You rightfully
   warn there: “Warning: this will change your web server configuration, make sure
   you are able to edit this file manually as well.” – Rightfully, because you are
   not handling the htaccess safely – You *delete* custom entries in the htaccess
   from other plugins – In our case you deleted everything written by fastestcache
   and by s2member, plus our own redirect entries. – In our unfortunate case, this
   resulted in “No access to this site”
 * Strongly recommended: Do not make changes to existing entries in the htaccess–
   if you wish to handle/offer htaccess at all.
 * From other plugins I noticed earlier, very very few plugins are able to write
   to the htaccess correctly. So better don’t. Just my conclusion from today’s disaster.
   Had I known it was a corrupted htaccess, we wouldn’t have had to roll out a backup.
 *  Plugin Support [Steve M](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wpsmort/)
 * (@wpsmort)
 * [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/errors-in-bad-bot-blocking/#post-7059055)
 * Hi CoolDavidoff,
 * I am sorry for the problems you experienced, however, I would like to note two
   things:
 * 1). We absolutely do not activate the Bad Bot Blocker by default. You have to
   go to Feature Manager and activate that feature. Once you’ve activated that feature
   you then have to check a box in the settings to Add rules to .htaccess. We don’t
   touch your .htaccess file unless you check that box and it is not checked by 
   default.
 * 2). We absolutely do not delete anything from the .htaccess file, all we do is
   append our rules and only if you’ve checked the setting mentioned above. We would
   never touch any other rules in an .htaccess file.
 * Finally, we always maintain that before making a change to your site that you
   back up your site just in case something goes wrong. Whenever you install anything,
   activate anything, deactivate anything or change any setting, there is always
   a risk that something can go wrong so always take a backup.
 * Again, I am sorry for your experience today, it’s entirely possible you had a
   conflict with another plugin on your site.
 * I have just tested our Bad Bot Blocker with WordPress v4.4.2, the current version
   of s2member and the current version of WP Fastest Cache and did not experience
   any issues. Obviously I cannot replicate the exact environment that you have 
   but I wanted to make sure we don’t have a conflict with those plugins you mentioned.
 *  Thread Starter [CoolDavidoff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cooldavidoff/)
 * (@cooldavidoff)
 * [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/errors-in-bad-bot-blocking/#post-7059071)
 * I appreciate you have to say “We absolutely do not delete anything from the .
   htaccess file”, and I continue to wholeheartedly support your plugin.
 * Nonetheless your statement is factually wrong: The very second I clicked Save
   in your plugin, it broke the entire client site as described. Likewise, as I 
   said, I downloaded a copy of the htaccess after your plugin’s htaccess changes,
   compared the before and after versions, and saw exactly what your plugin has 
   done.
 * And no, fastestcache wasn’t even activated at the time, and s2member doesn’t 
   change the htaccess unless the customer saves new settings (which wasn’t done
   either), and no other plugin CAN change the htaccess here.
 * Anyway, I won’t let this waste more of my time, I only posted this to allow you
   to review your htaccess changes and bad bot feature. That you aren’t aware of
   all the changes being made is obvious: else you would have prevented such case
   I am sure. Thus again, if you want to review the plugin in this regard, I would
   appreciate it – and others too.
 * Speaking of bad bot feature, you didn’t mention one word on this: I wrote:
 * “all log entries are blocking the client’s own site (this is why traffic gone
   down so much). Example for (hundreds/thousands of these):
    2016-02-12 16:47:29
   Blocked bot with IP [client IP] — matched user agent WordPress/4.4.2 [that’s 
   installed wp yes]; [https://client](https://client) site] found in blocklist.
   Thought you will want to know.”
 * I consider this to be caused by another conflict with the existing rewrite rules.
   htaccess is a delicate thing, Steve. If you write a line it often affects other
   existing lines further below, and vv.
 *  [Michael Torbert](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hallsofmontezuma/)
 * (@hallsofmontezuma)
 * WordPress Virtuoso
 * [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/errors-in-bad-bot-blocking/#post-7059198)
 * Hi CoolDavidoff,
 * Thank you for the report. I’m sorry you’re having these issues. I’m not 100% 
   certain on the cause, and would like to investigate and find out, but would first
   like to clear up a few things:
 * 1) This isn’t a new feature, and has been around since the first part of last
   year.
    2) This feature isn’t enabled by default. You have to manually enable 
   it. 3) Steve is correct that nothing is deleted, and the statement “you are not
   handling the htaccess safely” is incorrect. The ONLY code used to modify the 
   file is the built-in WordPress function “insert_with_markers,” which appends 
   content into the .htaccess. [https://wpseek.com/function/insert_with_markers/](https://wpseek.com/function/insert_with_markers/)
   This built-in WordPress function handles 100% of the inserting into .htaccess(
   in other words, WordPress handles the actual modifying of the .htaccess, the 
   plugin only supplies the content and the markers). According to WordPress documentation,
   this function: _Inserts an array of strings into a file (.htaccess ), placing
   it between BEGIN and END markers. Replaces existing marked info. Retains surrounding
   data. Creates file if none exists._ There is no code in All in One SEO Pack that
   can delete anything in .htaccess.
 * It is odd that it would block someone with a WP user agent. There’s nothing in
   All in One SEO Pack that automatically adds to the bad bot list. It only checks
   against the default list (which obviously doesn’t include WP) and anything the
   user manually adds (obviously you didn’t add WP). There is code that specifically
   checks to make sure the user isn’t logged in, which I assume would be the case
   here.
 * Having said that, clearly something unexpected is going on. Unfortunately, I’m
   not able to replicate this issue and need more information.
 * If you are interested in us investigating further and/or would be willing to 
   send us the logs and before/after .htaccess files, please contact us at semperplugins.
   com/contact/

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

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 * 6 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Michael Torbert](https://wordpress.org/support/users/hallsofmontezuma/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/errors-in-bad-bot-blocking/#post-7059198)
 * Status: resolved