“Internal Server Error”

  • scottsb

    (@scottsb)


    21 years, 4 months ago

    When writing a post about a new WordPress plugin I’ve developed (a Xanga/Wordpress crossposter), I ran into the weirdest error I have ever met in my experience with computers. I have no clue what causes it, so I’m posting here for ideas.

    When I clicked “Save as Draft” after finishing the entry, my server did not save it, but instead returned an error 500 — Internal Server Error. This is a regularly seen message in Perl coding, but not in PHP. Since I had just uploaded a slight code change to my plugin, I thought that was the cause, thinking I had just made a typo in my code. It turns out it isn’t quite so simple. I couldn’t find any typos, so I completely disabled my plugin and the error still occurred.

    On a hunch, I tried removing all but a little bit of my entry text, and it worked! I then added the whole entry back in, bit by bit, until I found the offending part. It turns out that the two-word phrase “Perl for” crashes WordPress. It doesn’t matter if it is in the post title or body, what the context is, or whether it is capitalized. I know that the problem is in WordPress itself (at least my installation), because the problem occurs with all plugins deactivated.

    Does anybody have any idea why WordPress is allergic to the phrase “perl for”?

    FYI, I am using WordPress 1.2.

Viewing 7 replies - 16 through 22 (of 22 total)
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  • nextwave

    (@nextwave)

    21 years, 2 months ago

    well- after some sleuthing-
    it was the word CD in the post-
    and our server admin person told us this:
    “The error you are getting while typing cd is due to the mod_security feature enabled in the server. The mod_security module does not allow users to type system level commands. The command cd is used as a change directory command. This is why the internal server error 500 occurs when typing cd in wordpress. Please try to replace the word cd with compact disk. Hope this helps. Thank you.”

    Go figure- secret words that shut down wordpress.
    Another guy had the word “Form” screw his up-

    since this works on some servers- does anybody know what you have to do to change the server- or what a complete list of trip words is?

    thanks

    nextwave

    (@nextwave)

    21 years, 2 months ago

    and Ming, I was already aware of MS Word- and had tried doing a txt file out of text edit….
    thanks!

    nextwave

    (@nextwave)

    21 years, 2 months ago

    found some great instructions with google on the web:

    :Consider setting ‘SecFilterInheritance’ to ‘Off’ for certain locations, by including it within a ‘Location’ block. For example, I have mine set up not to scan mt.cgi, because occasionally users post blog entries that contain words that are on the blacklist (e.g. ‘poker’), and I want them to be able to post whatever they want. Remember, mod_security will scan everything that gets posted to your server, whether it’s posted by a legitimate user logged in to Movable Type, or a comment spammer.

    here is the complete page http://prwdot.org/docs/blacklist_to_modsec.html

    Ming

    (@ming)

    21 years, 2 months ago

    Definitely interesting stuff. I’ve enabled mod_security on my shared host and I can still post CD, PERL for, form and php & linux system commands. Which I guess, shows nothing more than I have a less restrictive blacklist.

    I’m kind of surprised that your host choose to block CD. Even my grandfather doesn’t say ‘compact disc’. But then he’s the cool kind of Grandpa. 🙂

    biochip

    (@biochip)

    21 years ago

    The letters nc unites also cause the Internal Server Error, posting posts and comments.

    How can I activate mod_security, or what can I do to solve the problem?

    Thanak’s

    shadow

    (@shadow)

    21 years ago

    I was getting it from the quotes alone. Took the quotes out and it was all ok but then I have used quotes in other posts and it works.

    Go figure…

    stuartc1

    (@stuartc1)

    20 years, 2 months ago

    Having this problem also – it appears to happen when ever I post code.

    The strangest thing is when I edit the post.php to print out my form data followed by the die; command – I still get the error. Its as if the post.php is not getting executed at all. I also do not have any .htaccess files to mess with the URL – cant figure this thing out.

    Has nobody got a solution to this?

Viewing 7 replies - 16 through 22 (of 22 total)
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