• Registered: 2006-05-12
  • Posts: 28

Topic: Getting 500 Internal Server Error error when attempting login

I set up a v1.2.16 forum back in November and added a few users to it in preparation for further development later.  Since then I haven't done anything with the forum, but recently I have been preparing to start working with it.

Today I tried to login and received this server error:

Internal Server Error

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

Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@myhostname.net and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

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

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Apache/2.2.8 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.8 OpenSSL/0.9.7a mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 PHP/5.2.4 Server at www.myhostname.net Port 80

Blam!  That's a pretty severe error.  I haven't changed a thing on my end, but gawd knows what the hosting company has done to my environment since November.  The only way to login at the moment is to register as a new user and when you complete the registration process you will be logged in.  None of the existing login names work, not even one I created just before logging out and attempting to login again.

I was hoping someone here might know what is causing this.  A few minutes ago I updated the forum to v1.2.17 and the update, including the database update, went smoothly, but I still get the server error on login.

Any ideas?

2 Reply by MattF

  • MattF
  • Senior Member
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  • From: South Yorkshire, England
  • Registered: 2007-03-15
  • Posts: 1,956

Re: Getting 500 Internal Server Error error when attempting login

Screwed mod_sec rule.

MattF's Website

  • Registered: 2006-05-12
  • Posts: 28

Re: Getting 500 Internal Server Error error when attempting login

MattF wrote:

Screwed mod_sec rule.

Any workarounds?

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
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  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: Getting 500 Internal Server Error error when attempting login

Hmm, that's the likeliest possibility, since nothing has changed on your end. However, we would need to see the error log to tell for sure. wink

And the workaround, if it turns out that is the issue, is to talk to your host and get them to fix it. Just confirm the problem first/

  • Registered: 2006-05-12
  • Posts: 28

Re: Getting 500 Internal Server Error error when attempting login

Smartys wrote:

Hmm, that's the likeliest possibility, since nothing has changed on your end. However, we would need to see the error log to tell for sure. wink

And the workaround, if it turns out that is the issue, is to talk to your host and get them to fix it. Just confirm the problem first/

The error log doesn't reveal much:

[Tue Apr 15 18:19:35 2008] [error] [client 76.xxx.xxx.xxx] File does not exist: /home/myhost/public_html/500.shtml, referer: http://www.myhost.net/forum/login.php
[Tue Apr 15 17:28:08 2008] [error] [client 76.xxx.xxx.xxx] File does not exist: /home/myhost/public_html/500.shtml, referer: http://www.myhost.net/forum/login.php
[Tue Apr 15 17:23:36 2008] [error] [client 76.xxx.xxx.xxx] File does not exist: /home/myhost/public_html/500.shtml, referer: http://www.myhost.net/forum/login.php
[Tue Apr 15 17:21:28 2008] [error] [client 76.xxx.xxx.xxx] File does not exist: /home/myhost/public_html/500.shtml, referer: http://www.myhost.net/forum/login.php
[Tue Apr 15 17:21:01 2008] [error] [client 76.xxx.xxx.xxx] File does not exist: /home/myhost/public_html/500.shtml, referer: http://www.myhost.net/forum/login.php

Is login.php actually asking for those filenames?

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
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  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: Getting 500 Internal Server Error error when attempting login

Hmm, no, that's the 500 error trying to load an error document ("Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.")

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: Getting 500 Internal Server Error error when attempting login

http://punbb.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=18217
Looks like mod_security is the issue, oddly enough. I would love to see what mod_security rules they're using...

File a ticket wink

  • Registered: 2006-05-12
  • Posts: 28

Re: Getting 500 Internal Server Error error when attempting login

Well, the Liquid Web people relaxed the security feature on my site last night and now everything is working again.

Thanks, all.