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Admin Tools

#12557 Internal Server Error - locked out

Posted in ‘Admin Tools for Joomla! 4 & 5’
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Environment Information

Joomla! version
n/a
PHP version
n/a
Admin Tools version
n/a

Latest post by nicholas on Thursday, 07 June 2012 04:56 CDT

Monday, 04 June 2012 20:37 CDT

gdaw
Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Have I searched the tickets before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? Yes (most of the doc)
Joomla! version: 1.5
PHP version: 5.3
MySQL version: Not sure
Host: (optional, but it helps us help you)
Admin Tools version: 2.2.6

Description of my issue:
We were restoring a site that had been compromised and installed admin tools pro to help secure it. After installing the component and configuring the waf and the geographic blocking feature we lost access to the site. We receive the 'internal server error' message.
We tried renaming the main.php in the plugins to get back in the admin panel but this did not fix it. Is there any thing else we can do to get back in?

Thanks,
 Geoffrey Daw

Tuesday, 05 June 2012 01:30 CDT

nicholas
Hi Geoffrey,

Let's make sure that the problem is indeed caused by Admin Tools. In order to do so, try the following:

1. Try setting the Error Reporting level in your Global Configuration to "None". Many errors are caused by harmless PHP Notices and Warnings being output to the browser, breaking anything which requires HTTP header manipulation such as Joomla!'s session management, AJAX calls and download systems.

2. Try to replicate the issue after disabling the "System - Admin Tools" plugin. If you can still replicate the issue, it is not caused by Admin Tools. Disabling that plugin means that Admin Tools code (including the Web Application Firewall) is not running on your site.

3. If you suspect an issue with the .htaccess file, replace its contents with the contents of the stock htaccess.txt file shipped with every version of Joomla!. If you are on GoDaddy please wait for 1-30 minutes for the changes to be effective. Then, retry loading the problem page. If you can still reproduce the error, then it is not caused by .htaccess Maker.

If doing any of the above resulted in the issue still occurring, it's not related with Admin Tools and I can't help you. If doing any of the above did stop the issue from occurring, we'll have to do some troubleshooting.

First go to Admin Tools, Web Application Firewall, Configure WAF. Make sure "Log security exceptions" is set to Yes; if it's not, set it to Yes and click on Save. Now try reproducing your issue. Immediately after that, please go to Admin Tools, Web Application Firewall, Security Exceptions Log and go to the last page. The last log entry should have the date and time of when the issue occurred. Please copy the Reason and Target URL here so that I can help you.

If, however, you do not see a log entry, or the Date and/or IP address do not match your last access, this problem is not caused by Admin Tools' WAF. In this case, you will have to do some .htaccess troubleshooting. You may need to read the general .htaccess troubleshooting page, as well as the page on finding out necessary .htaccess exceptions.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Tuesday, 05 June 2012 19:52 CDT

gdaw
Thanks for the response.

We tried the above and no luck. We continued to get the same error. We replaced the .htaccess and disabled the main.php but no joy.

We ended up having our provider restore the directory to about a week ago. After some config changes we were able to access the administrator again. We reinstalled the admin tools pro and everything was going great. We configured the waf and the .htaccess and did a backup of the site with akeeba backup.

I then tried to do some further security checks and clicked on the fix permissions button. I got the pop up window and in it was the above message 'Internal Sever Error 500'. At this point our site was unaccessible again!!! Not sure what it did, I am guessing it change some file/dir permissions. I tried restoring from the akeeba backup but could not get anywhere with it either. Some type of permissions maybe.

I had tarred up the site and am restoring it again. We will re-install admin tools but obviously not check the permissions. Any ideas on what it could have changed that would cause this.

Thanks,
 Geoffrey Daw

Wednesday, 06 June 2012 03:08 CDT

nicholas
OK, you've confirmed that the problem is when you have Admin Tools change the permissions. The Fix Permissions feature, as documented, changes the permissions of files and folders. Obviously your site setup requires different permissions for some files than the defaults suggested by Admin Tools. In this case it'd be better if you didn't use that feature until you've confirmed what kind of permissions are required and set them up in the Permissions Configuration page of Admin Tools.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Wednesday, 06 June 2012 20:04 CDT

gdaw
Thanks for the quick response. We are back up and running and will not use the change permissions until we figure it out (any way to disable it for now).

The tool is great. Awesome job. Look forward to updates. We also use akeeba backup but might upgrade to the pro version.
Thanks.
 Geoffrey Daw

Thursday, 07 June 2012 04:56 CDT

nicholas
You're welcome and thank you for your kind words!

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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