Restore procedure blocked access to site

A blank page means that PHP is crashing, typically due to a function conflict introduced by plugins or theme functions.

Try manually resetting your plugins (no Dashboard access required). If that resolves the issue, reactivate each one individually until you find the cause.

If that does not resolve the issue, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel, navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and rename the directory of your currently active theme. This will force the default theme to activate and hopefully rule-out a theme-specific issue (theme functions can interfere like plugins).

Thanks James for your time. I have checked the database and the value is indeed set to
a:0:{} as required.
Now I get this message on the screen:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator at [email protected] to inform them of the time this error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

How can I get the log when I cannot enter the site ? (italianviaskype.it)

Thanks for your efforts. Any advice will be more than welcome !

Internal server errors (error 500) are often caused by plugin or theme function conflicts.

It sounds like the plugins are reset, so try switching to the Twenty Sixteen theme to rule-out a theme-specific issue. If you don’t have access to your admin panel, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel, navigate to /wp-content/themes/ and rename the directory of your currently active theme. This will force the default theme to activate and hopefully rule-out a theme-specific issue.

If that does not resolve the issue, it’s possible that a .htaccess rule could be the source of the problem. To check for this, access your server via SFTP or FTP, or a file manager in your hosting account’s control panel, and rename the .htaccess file. If you can’t find a .htaccess file, make sure that you have set your SFTP or FTP client to view invisible files.

If you weren’t able to resolve the issue by either resetting your plugins and theme or renaming your .htaccess file, we may be able to help, but we’ll need a more detailed error message. Internal server errors are usually described in more detail in the server error log. If you have access to your server error log, generate the error again, note the date and time, then immediately check your server error log for any errors that occurred during that time period. If you don’t have access to your server error log, ask your hosting provider to look for you.

I also changed the DiVI theme name to DIvi0. But I did not solve the problem.
I think maybe somethings went wrong with the $table_prefix attributed to the database in the wp-config file. But I do not know where to find it in order to check if they fit.
Maybe you would not if this could relate to the issue ?

After changing the .htaccess file, I get this message:
Not Found

The requested URL /wp-admin/ was not found on this server.
404 Not Found

table_prefix wouldn’t cause an error 500.

Was this a Mutlisite installation?

And again, if you weren’t able to resolve the issue by either resetting your plugins and theme or renaming your .htaccess file, we may be able to help, but we’ll need a more detailed error message. Internal server errors are usually described in more detail in the server error log. If you have access to your server error log, generate the error again, note the date and time, then immediately check your server error log for any errors that occurred during that time period. If you don’t have access to your server error log, ask your hosting provider to look for you.

Thank you so much for your efforts James. I appreciate.
I will check tomorrow with the hosting provider to get the log. It is now 2AM in France, and it’s time to call it a day. I will provide the log tomorrow and maybe you will be able to help. Thanks again.

You’re welcome!

Hello James,
I got an idea, but before messing everything up a little further, I would appreciate your comments and advice about this procedure: how about reinstalling WordPress in another dir, and once in the place, move all my files from the old dir to the new one ? Would that work ?
I do it sometimes on my machine, but being completely novice to the site environment, I am not sure, it could apply.
Thanks in advance.
JMM

Hello James,
Here I finally managed to get the info. Maybe you can decifer that …
Here is the error 500 :
Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator at [email protected] to inform them of the time this error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

And the log:

Fri, 18 Mar 2016 17:25:41 GMT [error] – https://www.italianviaskype.it – [client 92.160.15.152] ModSecurity: Warning. Match of “within %{tx.allowed_methods}” against “REQUEST_METHOD” required. [file “/modsecurity/modsecurity_crs_30_http_policy.conf”] [line “31”] [id “960032”] [rev “2”] [msg “Method is not allowed by policy”] [data “GET”] [severity “CRITICAL”] [ver “OWASP_CRS/2.2.9”] [maturity “9”] [accuracy “9”] [tag “OWASP_CRS/POLICY/METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED”] [tag “WASCTC/WASC-15”] [tag “OWASP_TOP_10/A6”] [tag “OWASP_AppSensor/RE1”] [tag “PCI/12.1”] [hostname “lnx.italianviaskype.it”] [uri “/wp/wp-admin/”] [unique_id “VuwsBVkuaf4AAABPIocAAABC”]
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 17:25:41 GMT [error] – https://www.italianviaskype.it – [client 92.160.15.152] ModSecurity: Warning. Pattern match “([\\\\~\\\\!\\\\@\\\\#\\\\$\\\\%\\\\^\\\\&\\\\*\\\\(\\\\)\\\\-\\\\+\\\\=\\\\{\\\\}\\\\[\\\\]\\\\|\\\\:\\\\;\\”\\\\’\\\\\\xc2\\xb4\\\\\\xe2\\x80\\x99\\\\\\xe2\\x80\\x98\\\\`\\\\<\\\\>].*?){8,}” at REQUEST_COOKIES:wp-settings-1. [file “/modsecurity/modsecurity_crs_41_sql_injection_attacks.conf”] [line “157”] [id “981172”] [rev “2”] [msg “Restricted SQL Character Anomaly Detection Alert – Total # of special characters exceeded”] [data “Matched Data: & found within REQUEST_COOKIES:wp-settings-1: libraryContent=browse&editor=tinymce&advImgDetails=show&mfold=o&align=center&imgsize=full&posts_list_mode=list&hidetb=1”] [ver “OWASP_CRS/2.2.9”] [maturity “9”] [accuracy “8”] [tag “OWASP_CRS/WEB_ATTACK/SQL_INJECTION”] [hostname “lnx.italianviaskype.it”] [uri “/wp/wp-admin/”] [unique_id “VuwsBVkuaf4AAABPIocAAABC”]
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 17:25:41 GMT [error] – https://www.italianviaskype.it – [client 92.160.15.152] ModSecurity: Warning. Pattern match “([\\\\~\\\\!\\\\@\\\\#\\\\$\\\\%\\\\^\\\\&\\\\*\\\\(\\\\)\\\\-\\\\+\\\\=\\\\{\\\\}\\\\[\\\\]\\\\|\\\\:\\\\;\\”\\\\’\\\\\\xc2\\xb4\\\\\\xe2\\x80\\x99\\\\\\xe2\\x80\\x98\\\\`\\\\<\\\\>].*?){8,}” at REQUEST_COOKIES:wp-settings-1. [file “/modsecurity/modsecurity_crs_41_sql_injection_attacks.conf”] [line “157”] [id “981172”] [rev “2”] [msg “Restricted SQL Character Anomaly Detection Alert – Total # of special characters exceeded”] [data “Matched Data: & found within REQUEST_COOKIES:wp-settings-1: libraryContent=browse&editor=tinymce&advImgDetails=show&mfold=o&align=center&imgsize=full&posts_list_mode=list”] [ver “OWASP_CRS/2.2.9”] [maturity “9”] [accuracy “8”] [tag “OWASP_CRS/WEB_ATTACK/SQL_INJECTION”] [hostname “lnx.italianviaskype.it”] [uri “/wp/wp-admin/”] [unique_id “VuwsBVkuaf4AAABPIocAAABC”]
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 17:25:41 GMT [error] – https://www.italianviaskype.it – AH00124: Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use ‘LimitInternalRecursion’ to increase the limit if necessary. Use ‘LogLevel debug’ to get a backtrace.
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 17:25:41 GMT [error] – https://www.italianviaskype.it – [client 92.160.15.152] ModSecurity: Warning. Pattern match “^5\\\\d{2}$” at RESPONSE_STATUS. [file “/modsecurity/modsecurity_crs_50_outbound.conf”] [line “53”] [id “970901”] [rev “2”] [msg “The application is not available”] [data “Matched Data: 500 found within RESPONSE_STATUS: 500”] [severity “ERROR”] [ver “OWASP_CRS/2.2.9”] [maturity “9”] [accuracy “9”] [tag “WASCTC/WASC-13”] [tag “OWASP_TOP_10/A6”] [tag “PCI/6.5.6”] [hostname “lnx.italianviaskype.it”] [uri “/wp-admin/”] [unique_id “VuwsBVkuaf4AAABPIocAAABC”]
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 17:25:41 GMT [error] – https://www.italianviaskype.it – [client 92.160.15.152] ModSecurity: Warning. Operator GE matched 1 at TX. [file “/modsecurity/modsecurity_crs_60_correlation.conf”] [line “29”] [id “981202”] [msg “Correlated Attack Attempt Identified: (Total Score: 0, SQLi=3, XSS=) Inbound Attack ( Inbound Anomaly Score: ) + Outbound Application Error (The application is not available – Outbound Anomaly Score: 0)”] [severity “ALERT”] [hostname “lnx.italianviaskype.it”] [uri “/wp-admin/”] [unique_id “VuwsBVkuaf4AAABPIocAAABC”]
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 17:25:21 GMT [error] – https://www.italianviaskype.it – [client 92.160.15.152] ModSecurity: Warning. Match of “within %{tx.allowed_methods}” against “REQUEST_METHOD” required. [file “/modsecurity/modsecurity_crs_30_http_policy.conf”] [line “31”] [id “960032”] [rev “2”] [msg “Method is not allowed by policy”] [data “GET”] [severity “CRITICAL”] [ver “OWASP_CRS/2.2.9”] [maturity “9”] [accuracy “9”] [tag “OWASP_CRS/POLICY/METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED”] [tag “WASCTC/WASC-15”] [tag “OWASP_TOP_10/A6”] [tag “OWASP_AppSensor/RE1”] [tag “PCI/12.1”] [hostname “www.italianviaskype.it”] [uri “/”] [unique_id “Vuwr8Vkuaf4AAABPIoYAAABA”]
Fri, 18 Mar 2016 17:25:21 GMT [error] [client 92.160.15.152] – https://www.italianviaskype.it – AH01215: PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘DB_USER’ (T_STRING) in /web/htdocs/www.italianviaskype.it/home/wp-config.php on line 26: /php-wrapper/php-cgi

Thanks again for your efforts. Best regards, JMM

Looks like mod_security is blocking core WordPress functionality.

You’ll need to talk to your hosting provider about that.

What does that mean ? What has changed since it worked ? Which file might have been touched ?
I reinstalled WordPress and restored a backup. Nothing else has been changed by the provider. But it looks the backup has a discrepancy with the new install it has been injected to. Do you have any suggestion about the files I should look into ?
Thanks in advance.

That means you need to contact your hosting provider and say:

Suddenly, mod_security is blocking basic WordPress functionality. My site won’t load, and the error log is filled with entries like:

Fri, 18 Mar 2016 17:25:41 GMT [error] – https://www.italianviaskype.it – [client 92.160.15.152] ModSecurity: Warning. Match of “within %{tx.allowed_methods}” against “REQUEST_METHOD” required. [file “/modsecurity/modsecurity_crs_30_http_policy.conf”] [line “31”] [id “960032”] [rev “2”] [msg “Method is not allowed by policy”] [data “GET”] [severity “CRITICAL”] [ver “OWASP_CRS/2.2.9”] [maturity “9”] [accuracy “9”] [tag “OWASP_CRS/POLICY/METHOD_NOT_ALLOWED”] [tag “WASCTC/WASC-15”] [tag “OWASP_TOP_10/A6”] [tag “OWASP_AppSensor/RE1”] [tag “PCI/12.1”] [hostname “lnx.italianviaskype.it”] [uri “/wp/wp-admin/”] [unique_id “VuwsBVkuaf4AAABPIocAAABC”]

OK. I will try that. Thank you James. I will keep you posted.
Have a nice week-end.

You’re welcome!