File manager editor fails to Save

[SRQ_civicrm]

Edits are not saving and the error messages are not helping. I've checked owner, group and permissions for the files and containing folders, all are correct. The error message upon hitting Save is "Your login session has expired." Except it has not, the session remains able to perform any function except Save. Besides, the error happens even when attempting the edit and Save immediately upon login. The error popup offers OK and Cancel buttons, on Cancel it pops another dialogue saying "HTTP ERROR 403: Forbidden." See attachments.

CentOS v7.9.2009 STANDARD hyper-v
cPanel Version 110.0.10

 

[quietFinn]

I suspect that error is caused by ModSecurity
Do you have root access, or just cPanel?

 

[SRQ_civicrm]

I have WHM/root access.

 

[quietFinn]

Search for your IP address in WHM Home / Security Center / ModSecurity Tools and see if anything shows up.

 

[SRQ_civicrm]

Thanks for the try! The hits list is empty.

 

[SRQ_civicrm]

Crap! Uploads are also hitting HTTP error 403. See attached. I'm in it deep now

 

[quietFinn]

I'd think that is caused by PHP's upload_max_filesize and/or post_max_siz setting.

 

[SRQ_civicrm]

Not in this case, though. I was only trying to upload a file less than 100KB. The PHP settings are:
post_max_size => 8M => 8M
upload_max_filesize => 3M => 3M

 

[quietFinn]

Maybe you see something useful in /usr/local/cpanel/logs/error_log

 

[SRQ_civicrm]

Good thought. Looking at the times when I was experiencing the problem, all I see is a repetition (see below) of what looks like normal stuff:

[2023-09-23 07:45:02 -0400] info [cpsrvd] version 11.110.0.10 online
==> cpsrvd 11.110.0.10 started
==> cpsrvd: loading security policy....Done
==> cpsrvd: Setting up SSL support ... Done
==> cpsrvd: transferred port bindings: 10,11,12,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
==> cpsrvd: bound to ports
[2023-09-23 07:50:09 -0400] info [cpsrvd] version 11.110.0.10 online
==> cpsrvd 11.110.0.10 started
==> cpsrvd: loading security policy....Done
==> cpsrvd: Setting up SSL support ... Done
==> cpsrvd: transferred port bindings: 10,11,12,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
==> cpsrvd: bound to ports
[2023-09-23 07:54:23 -0400] info [cpsrvd] version 11.110.0.10 online
==> cpsrvd 11.110.0.10 started
==> cpsrvd: loading security policy....Done
==> cpsrvd: Setting up SSL support ... Done
==> cpsrvd: transferred port bindings: 10,11,12,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
==> cpsrvd: bound to ports
[2023-09-23 07:57:25 -0400] info [cpsrvd] version 11.110.0.10 online
==> cpsrvd 11.110.0.10 started
==> cpsrvd: loading security policy....Done
==> cpsrvd: Setting up SSL support ... Done
==> cpsrvd: transferred port bindings: 10,11,12,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
==> cpsrvd: bound to ports
[2023-09-23 08:05:09 -0400] info [cpsrvd] version 11.110.0.10 online
==> cpsrvd 11.110.0.10 started
==> cpsrvd: loading security policy....Done
==> cpsrvd: Setting up SSL support ... Done
==> cpsrvd: transferred port bindings: 10,11,12,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
==> cpsrvd: bound to ports
[2023-09-23 08:07:13 -0400] info [cpsrvd] version 11.110.0.10 online
==> cpsrvd 11.110.0.10 started
==> cpsrvd: loading security policy....Done
==> cpsrvd: Setting up SSL support ... Done
==> cpsrvd: transferred port bindings: 10,11,12,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
==> cpsrvd: bound to ports

 

[SRQ_civicrm]

To get a cleaner view, I'll post late today any error log entries directly after a failure to save and a failure to update.

 

[SRQ_civicrm]

Monitored error_log while replicating both failure modes - unable to save from the editor and unable to upload from the file manager. Neither case added any lines to the log. For grins I tried to Go to a non-existent directory and that was caught in the log.

 

[SRQ_civicrm]

Since it looks like this server has gotten corrupted somehow, a potential follow-up is to accelerate the move from CentOS to AlmaLinux. Elevate won't work because of dependence on software that's not PHP 8 ready, according to phan. In order to set up a separate server to test with alternative software, I've followed up on the recommendation from this thread.

 

[quietFinn]

Can you create & save any file as that cPanel user, in command line?

 

[SRQ_civicrm]

Yes, the command line (Terminal tool) is unaffected for both WHM and cPanel users. The cPanel user even resorted to vim for some critical tweaks and it worked, it's just painful beyond all reason.

 

[quietFinn]

Did you try:
/scripts/upcp --force

 

[SRQ_civicrm]

Did you try:
/scripts/upcp --force

Glad you asked! I've been hesitant to try that because I'm on cPanel 110.0.10. If the --force pushes the server to cPanel versions that presume Elevation, that'd be a huge problem! Are you certain that command will reinstall 110.0.10?

 

[quietFinn]

problem! Are you certain that command will reinstall 110.0.10?

Yes, it will install the version you have selected in WHM / Home / Server Configuration / Update Preferences

So apparently you have LTS there.

 

[SRQ_civicrm]

The update completed successfully but the problem persists

 

[cPRex]

It's definitely time to put in a ticket, as something seems wrong with the system.