Problem on wp_options table have big size

Hi,

we have problem on table wp_options it is have very big size because the plugin create a lot of ID with this (option_name) aiowps_captcha_string_info and the table now over 15GB please help me to solve this problem and remove this data from this table and solve this problem

https://ibb.co/xfD8Zz2

Hi @bazwo,

It seems you have Maths Captcha enabled.

We do have a daily cron event which is supposed to delete this maths captcha related info string.

The screen shot you have sent has timestamp = 1726663236 ( Wednesday, September 18, 2024 12:40:36 PM)

So if cronjobs is running it should delete those daily. It has been 15 GB of database so I consider either your site have DDos attack, you check log an if any server IP keep getting many requests you should block it.

If you can access the database with any sql client like phpMyAdmin etc and run this query it will delete all the captcha related records if you do not want recent maths captcha string information removed you may check the table and use the and option_id < {optionid} like condition where {optionid} will be 1 hr before setting captcha string option_id.

DELETE FROM wp_options WHERE option_name LIKE 'aiowps_captcha_string_info_%'

Do you have hosting on shared server or a dedicated server? You should contact the hosting provider once for the issue of might be a DDos attack. You shouldcross-checkk access logs of your sites.

Once this records are deleted you may cross check the daily cron job running and removing these captcha options or not. You use WP Crontrol Plugin and run AIOS daily cron job to check if it cronjob works or not.

If still the DDos attacks are there which keep increasing DB instead of Maths captcha use Google reCaptcha v2 or Cloudflare Turnstile Captcha as possible options.

Regards

Dear,

1- the daily cron not working because we check the database table and we see it is not delete please check the new attach file this time it Thu Oct 10 2024 22:44:13 GMT+0000

https://ibb.co/F86qDPr

2- for the DDos attack i think this It didn’t happen because we face the same problem on other website with different domain name

3- when we try using this code on phpmyadmin take long time without any update and we try to delete some rows from phpmyadmin but it is created again

please help to solve this problem it is big problem on plugin and we face it on many website not only one

• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by bazwo.

Hi @bazwo

1 Generally daily cronjobs should run If not running have to check reason for it.

2 If it is not due to DDOs attack or any other stuff crawling the page where it needs to show maths captcha questions, Does your site have a large number of visitors?

Do visitors can see this captcha ( comment forms/contact forms ) ?

3. Yes that query might take some time as it is comparing and remove records but it should work.

It those records are keep adding then it means maths captcha to show being called.

You may use the Google Recaptcha v2 or Turnstile captcha. Maths captcha only store this info.

Regards

Dear,

now we don’t use any captcha and when we try to delete this rows we see it recreated again please help me to stop this from your plugin and help me to delete it

Hi @bazwo,

WP Security > Brute force > CAPTCHA settings – Default CAPTCHA: set to No CAPTCHA then it should not add any such new records. I can assure you.

It might be the script called before and this query in the pool to run. Please contact once your hosting provider why it gets added if he might can give any hints.

If still issue You may go to /wp-content/all-in-one-wp-security-and-firewall/classes/wp-security-captcha.php and for the method generate_maths_question add return ''; so it will never run to add those options in that table any how.

private function generate_maths_question() {
		global $aio_wp_security;
                return ''; 

Regards