Support

 Hello! I have a component I use on many different sites - Creative Contact Form - that I use with Admin Tools with little to no issues in the past. However, just recently the contact form on http://autumnbreezekennel.com/contact-autumn-breeze-kennel returns a server error now on every submit.

I went into Admin Tools per the Developer of Creative Contact Form (Simon) who had me add it to the Exceptions area(s) for the settings for the .htaccess maker. Did not solution it.

I also checked folder permissions and those were good.

I contacted Simon again, and gave him back end access to the site so he could try to fix as he has done many times for other customers. But to no avail.

His comment was:
I've tried different combinations, but it continues showing same error.





Please ask Admin Tools support team to give right direction, and fix the issue, or disable it.


Best Regards,




Simon


So now I am hoping maybe I can get some guidance for either Simon or myself? Not sure why it is only doing this on this site, and not any other sites I host.

Thanks!

You guys had the right idea, but not quite the right format. Notice how the exceptions at the top of your list are paths, but you entered a URL? That is the problem.

What is the exact error that you're getting? If it is a 500, you will have to look at the server error log to identify the exact file involved. If it is a 403, there may be enough in the error message to identify it. When we figure that out, we need to put the path to that file in the Exceptions box.

Hi Dale, originally I used just the allow access including .php files to these directories with components/com_creativecontactform being listed.

Simon updated with the new entries in the first box "allow direct access to these files".

The error we are getting is a generic pop up "Server Error" from the component, not a 500 or 403 error.

Thanks!

Here is the error:

Let's try this: rename your .htaccess file and find htaccess.txt in the root of your site. This is the default file that ships with Joomla!. We use that as a known safe file. Rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess. Note that GoDaddy caches the .htaccess file so it may take up to an hour for the change to be effective on your site. Does the problem still occur?

OK, I will try it and let you know. It may be later today or even tomorrow as I don't have access at this time as I am traveling. Thanks!

Hi Dale, Simon just provided this info:

Please provide them the following data:



The following request returns 403 error, see bellow:



Request URL:http://www.autumnbreezekennel.com/index.php?option=com_creativecontactform&view=creativemailer&format=raw

Request Method:POST



403 This request is blocked by Admin Tools. Please change this message in the component's options.

Please thank Simon for me, his information led me in another direction.

Please check the Security Exceptions Log under Web Application Firewall. I think it may be WAF blocking access, not .htaccess. If you find the error, please post it and we'll get an exception set up.

Dale, I looked in the WAF and there are no entries - in fact all tabs are clean and void of entries?

Let's make sure the logging is turned on. In Web Application Firewall, Configure WAF, on the Logging and Reporting tab, "Log security exceptions" should be Yes and "Do not log these reasons" should be only the default Geo Block.

Hi Dale, it is turned on-see attached.

Thanks!

When you get the opportunity, disable the System - Admin Tools plugin and see if that solves the problem. That will completely turn off the WAF. We don't want that turned off for any longer than necessary because it completely turns off the WAF. :-)

The WAF and the .htaccess file are the two major components of Admin Tools. By disabling the plugin and swapping out the .htaccess file, we'll narrow down where the problem is coming from.

OK, I disabled the plugin and had success sending a form. Next step is working on the .htaccess file....

UPDATE! I was able to rename .htaccess to .htaccess.tmp, and renamed htaccess.txt to .htaccess.

Went to submit the form after re-enabling Admin Tools from the plugins. Got the same error! Disabled Admin Tools and it worked submitting.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

That is progress! That means WAF is blocking the form, not .htaccess.

I know we've been down this road already. Please check your Security Exceptions Log under Web Application Firewall. It is supposed to have information on what WAF blocked. It shouldn't be empty, that would mean that nobody is trying to attack your site.

Hi Dale, did as instructed and here is what I got:

Appears as an RFIShield violation.....

We want to go to Web Application Firewall, WAF Exceptions, New, in the Component field we want com_creativecontactform and in the View we want creativemailer. Save and test.

The exception puts a hole in your security. This is necessary for this extension to work, that is not unusual. The goal is to make the smallest hole possible to get it to work. We can fill in just the component field and leave view blank, but that makes a bigger hole. The exception currently only works with creativemailer view. If there are other views that the component uses, they will still be blocked. So we may not be done yet. We may need to add more views or eliminate the view restriction altogether.

Dale, completed per instructions, re-tested and got the same server error...

Got a warning also same as before for the RFIShield violation.


****UPDATED*****

I deleted cache in Admin and Browser, re-tried and it worked!

I should have thought of the cache. :-(

That's really good news, let's test it for a while before declaring it beaten into submission. Please let me know.

SOOOOOO, being curious, I checked on another site that I recently launched, and it too was working with out issues after initially launched ( a month ago).

www.cabinet-innovations.com/contact-cabinet-innovations now is throwing "error validating ReCAPTCHA" errors (see attached). As always I test everything on a site before launching, and this was working fine, but now these errors.

Just wondering if Admin Tools related or? I do not see any security exceptions.....

Joomla version 3.5.1
PHP version 5.4.45
Admin Tools version 3.8.3

Thanks!

It certainly looks like the same error. Please check the log to see if you have the same information there.

No errors being flagged, double checked that error reporting was turned on too.

Validated that all ReCAPTCHA keys were correct for both the component settings and Joomla settings.

I did reach out to Simon too at Creative Solutions for feedback.
Thanks!

This ticket has been automatically closed. All tickets which have been inactive for a long time are automatically closed. If you believe that this ticket was closed in error, please contact us.