PHP fatal error on connection attempt

  • Resolved clausfaber

    (@clausfaber)


    2 years, 10 months ago

    Hi, I wonder what’s wrong with Updraft Central: I get a fatal PHP error.

    I have Updraft Central on 5 websites, and the Updraft Central Dashboard on one of them.

    1) Recently, I updated all updrafts (Updraft Plus and Updraft Central) and the core on all of my websites, and the Updraft Central Dashboard stopped working: It displays an old status, and when I do anything that connects to other Updraft Central instances (like “looking for updates”), it displays a connection error. No, there is no firewall or anything else. The help text indicates I should remove and reconnect the websites.

    2) So I did: removed one website (the one where the dashboard is running on, too) and tried to reconnect, following your perfect tutorial (https://updraftplus.com/updraftcentral-how-to-add-a-site/).

    – Step 1: I log into the backend of the website I want to reconnect. I go to Settings->Updraft Plus Backup/Restore, Tab “tools”, tab “UpdraftCentral”.
    – Step 2: I hit the button “Self-hosted dashboard” to reconnect.
    – Step 3: I answer the question on how large the key should be (2048) and enter the website URL (not the path to the updraft central dashboard, I assume; the tutorial is not completely clear on that).

    –> Instead of a key, I get a fatal PHP error:

    PHP Fatal error (Error) has occurred during updraftcentral_create_key subaction. Error Message: Call to undefined function phpinfo() (Code: 0, line 521 in /srv/www/htdocs/claus.faber/www.test.clausfaber.net/wp-content/plugins/updraftplus/vendor/phpseclib/phpseclib/phpseclib/Crypt/RSA.php)

    Something in my system can’t answer the question, which PHP version is running. The UpdraftPlus settings tab “Website information” shows: 8.0.12.

    Wordpress Version is 5.8.2, MySQL version is 7.5.35-log, OpenSSL is active, MCrypt not active. UpdraftCentral Dashboard is 0.8.19. SSL is active. Anything else to let you know? (I’m not a wordpress programmer, only admin ??

    Many thanks in advance! You make updating so easy with your plugin ??

    • This topic was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by clausfaber.
    • This topic was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by clausfaber.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Thread Starter clausfaber

    (@clausfaber)

    update: Same issue if I want to connect to an UpdateCentral account. No key, but an error message is generated.

    Plugin Author David Anderson

    (@davidanderson)

    Hi,

    Thank you for the report. This is caused by your web hosting company disabling the phpinfo() function in their PHP setup – if they can re-enable it, the problem will go away. (As its name suggest, it is a function for getting information about the PHP installation and its capabilities).

    I have also filed a change request in the encryption library (used by UpdraftCentral) which is using that function, to first detect if it is available, so a future release may (if that change is accepted) be able to cope with such hosting: https://github.com/phpseclib/phpseclib/pull/1726

    David

    Plugin Author David Anderson

    (@davidanderson)

    Alternatively, in your wp-config.php file, near the top, you can add this somewhat ugly work-around:

    
if (!function_exists('phpinfo')) {
  function phpinfo() { echo 'Disabled by web hosting provider\n'; }
}
    Thread Starter clausfaber

    (@clausfaber)

    Hi David, thanks for your reply!

    I am no programmer, but I dug a bit deeper and found: There are several instances in the same wordpress who can perfectly read out the PHP version.

    There is even a link in the updraftPlus Settings which reads out phpinfo() and that works out perfectly. So, phpinfo is NOT turned off by the provider.

    Now, the UPdraftPlus plugin uses a RSA implementation Pure-PHP PKCS#1 (v.2.1) (that’s the file that fails) which says in the header, that it’s for PHP 4 and 5 – almost all servers are now 8. My guess is that something in that implementation is outdated.

    This RSA implementation calls the phpinfo() in line 521 and seems to extract the php version number – I don’t know enough php to figure out how. It’s supposed to do something with it – won’t it miss its output if the (overwritten) function returns “sorry, out for lunch”?

    My (a bit rough) conclusion is: Is it possible to update this implementation?

    Alas – being no programmer and only having a live website somewhere far away on a virtual server without shell access (which I can’t afford to mess up), this is the end of my story. Any suggestions? Many thanks!

    Plugin Author David Anderson

    (@davidanderson)

    Hi Claus,

    Your reply significantly misunderstands what was being described, assuming that your issue is the same as described in the error message of the poster. If it is not the precise same issue, please open your own topic.

    Thank you,
    David

    Thread Starter clausfaber

    (@clausfaber)

    OK, let’s disagree. I verified that the function phpinfo() is perfectly working in other code of the same instance. It does not in RSA.php.

    I have my personal timeout now. updraft central stopped working on my website with php 8.0.

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