After Update to 4.6 keep getting cURL error 23

In addition to adding curl_exec to your disable functions under your php.ini or php setup – you do have to apply the core code fix mentioned here – https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/read-this-first-wordpress-46-master-list?replies=5&view=all#post-8770164 and originally pointed out above by Marius L. J. (Clorith)

@taba1933 your cURL version is very outdated, you’ll want to ask your host to update that, it’s a 4 year old version (the latest version is 7.50.1, of course they may not be able to jump straight to that, but 7.26 should definitely be updated).

I wouldn’t recommend downgrading, and if you do, you should be bringing in backups of the database and everything, not just downgrading the files as databases etc often change on upgrade.

@williamlevins I unfortunately don’t know your cURL version, but I’d highly recommend checking the versioning of it as well (cURL is definitely the preferred way of fetching content so if it can be used that’s always a plus)

Problem solved for now. I just killed curl_exec (and others) in php.ini like williamlevins adviced and replaced AND with OR in cURL.php. Updating and downloading plugins possible again. Only, now I get these two messages from WordPress News:

RSS-fout: This XML document is invalid, likely due to invalid characters. XML error: Not well-formed (invalid token) at line 1, column 1

RSS-fout: This XML document is invalid, likely due to invalid characters. XML error: Not well-formed (invalid token) at line 1, column 1

Maybe you could look into that.

Thanx anyway for your concern.

PS I will ask my host why they maintain such an old version. Nevertheless, in the Netherlands they are known as the most safe…

Problem solved for now. I just killed curl_exec (and others) in php.ini

You made a fallback to fsockopen() transport, however it will be interesting to find roots of the problem and solve it for others having similar issue.
If updating curl and (possibly) openssl helps then it might be older curl bug having problems with SSLv3 preferred over TLS1.0(+)

I have a shared hosting so I cannot change PHP.ini to remove curl.

Change /wp-incldues/Request/Transport/cURL.php from:

public static function test($capabilities = array()) {

to

public static function test($capabilities = array()) {
  return false;

Now updates are working again.

I’m having a similar problem today as well across several sites, affecting all plugins and themes.

My error is slightly different, and I can’t find any topics mentioning it, but this thread is very similar.

My error is

Update Failed: Download failed. Response could not be parsed

When trying to do the updates, and then the themes/plugins disappear from my plugin list. I’ve reported this thread to my host, and will see if it’s also an issue that gets fixed by this

So, how to fix it?
Host provider said they have enabled curl and I have php 5.6 (7 – they don’t have)
But problem still exist.
How to fix it?
I can’t update plugins and themes!

I reported this thread to my host. They updated something, asked me to reinstall WordPress which I did on 4 sites and seems to fix the problem for me.

So do a reinstall of WordPress core after the fix, then try again

@fcostacampos – nice fix. That actually works! And it solves some latent issues I was having due to curl_exec being disabled.

So to summarize…

1) Edit /wp-incldues/Request/Transport/cURL.php

2) Around line 526 – per fcostacampos – add return false;

public static function test($capabilities = array()) {
  return false;

3) Changed && to || according to Marius suggestion – read more here – https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/read-this-first-wordpress-46-master-list?replies=5&view=all#post-8770164 – not sure if this is still necessary but meh, shouldn’t hurt.

So my final edit to the public function in cURL.php looks like this

public static function test($capabilities = array()) {
		return false;
		if (!function_exists('curl_init') || !function_exists('curl_exec')) {
			return false;
		}

		// If needed, check that our installed curl version supports SSL
		if (isset($capabilities['ssl']) && $capabilities['ssl']) {
			$curl_version = curl_version();
			if (!(CURL_VERSION_SSL & $curl_version['features'])) {
				return false;
			}
		}

		return true;
	}

@williamlevins
That change will go away with the next WordPress update, we generally don’t recommend editing core files directly unless it’s something we know is already patched and will be included in an update.

Did you check the cURL version available to you, as some older versions are known to have issues with secure (https/ssl) connections in some situations.

@scragglydoggames
Glad to hear you got it sorted out!

@l575
You’re going to have to confirm the version of cURL installed, and if any curl_* functions have been disabled by your host.

cURL support: enabled
cURL Information: 7.36.0
Age: 3
AsynchDNS: Yes
CharConv No
Debug No
GSS-Negotiate Yes
IDN Yes
IPv6 Yes
krb4 No
Largefile Yes
libz Yes
NTLM Yes
NTLMWB Yes
SPNEGO No
SSL Yes
SSPI No
TLS-SRP No
Protocols dict, file, ftp, ftps, gopher, http, https, imap, imaps, ldap, ldaps, pop3, pop3s, rtsp, scp, sftp, smtp, smtps, telnet, tftp
Host x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu
SSL Version OpenSSL/1.0.1e
ZLib Version 1.2.3
libSSH Version libssh2/1.4.3

@l575
I can’t say for sure if this is related, but I’d like to get it addressed any way, you’ll need to talk to your host, but your OpenSSL version is outdated an on a known vulnerable version known as Heartbleed, the cURL version is a few years old, so if it’s possible to bring that up to date that’d be awesome, just ot make sure that’s also not a factor in things not working ??

I am also having an update issue with 4.6.

I have started a site on Google Cloud and installed the single instance.
Having removed the plugins installed by default leaving a theme I get an unpacking error when applying the update

The update could not be unpacked

Installation Failed

is returned.

I would appreciate any suggestions.
I do not do code unless it is really simple and relatively new to Google Cloud.

Alex

Alas, WordPress 4.6.1 update failed to permanently fix the Curl Issue. It actually causes the problem to re-occur. While I had hoped the problem would be solved – it remains – UNLESS I re-edit /wp-incldues/Request/Transport/cURL.php – as I outline on the page 2 of this thread.

The wordpress team DID fix the && vs || issue – BUT I still must put the return false; addition or cURL fails.

I really don’t want to keep editing a core file that I KNOW will be overwritten on the next update to WP – but the cURL issue lingers so it’s my only option at this time.

I hope someone finds a permanent solution to this or the wonderful WP team fixes things.

public static function test($capabilities = array()) {
		return false;  //<---- I must add this or cURL fails

		if (!function_exists('curl_init') || !function_exists('curl_exec')) {
			return false;
		}

		// If needed, check that our installed curl version supports SSL
		if (isset($capabilities['ssl']) && $capabilities['ssl']) {
			$curl_version = curl_version();
			if (!(CURL_VERSION_SSL & $curl_version['features'])) {
				return false;
			}
		}

		return true;
	}

You still are using 4.6.1 correct?