Errors in site after new install

My tech support wasn’t as helpful as I had hoped. Here is what I sent:

Hi there. I’m trying to install MODxCMS on my site (www.orionvisuals.com) but I am having trouble getting the cms generated pages to display. I asked for help on the modx support forum, and I was told that the /cgi-bin/cgi.s.php file seemed to be interfering with the site. When I tried renaming the file to cgi.s.php-old the index.html page on the site generated a 500 server error. Reverting the name fixed it again. Here is the support thread: http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php/topic,6923.0.html What is this file for, and how can I get modxcms working with it?

And their reply:

It is hard to say what the file you are mentioning is used for however it is not a file which is installed by CWI. Chances are this file was part of the installation of the ModxCms system you are using. You should check for this file name in the ModxCms systems support forums.

Right. SOMETHING that you installed has added this file. It is not MODx. Seemingly it has been added to a configuration file somewhere, and so removing it / renaming it causes your site to break.

The problem is the headers. You don’t want that to be added. You don’t know what benefit this file has to you.
So try replacing /cgi-bin/cgi.s.php with a blank file.

Considering that the only other mention of it I was able to find, on Yahoo search, was a posting to a hosting compay’s forums about this and several similar files being found in a folder named /.x, I strongly suspect something fishy here.

I’ve found a page from a Joomla website with the error as well.

Ok, looks like this is the culprit...

http://gallery.menalto.com/node/662

[edit] Well maybe not, but it’s something similar. I wonder, is your PHP running as an Apache module, or in CGI mode?

I’m not having much luck. Here’s the recent correspondance with my host:

Neil Creek
Posted on 04 Sep 2006 02:17 AM
I followed up my query in the modx forum, and this file is not installed by modx cms. I would like to be able to remove this file, but I don’t know how to do wo without causing server errors. I did a google search for the file name, and couldn’t find any information in english. It seems very suspicious to me. Can you help me get rid of the file?

Randolph
Posted on 04 Sep 2006 08:22 AM
As you have requested, this file has been removed. If you have any further requests, please let us know.

Neil Creek
Posted on 04 Sep 2006 08:33 AM
Thank you for the help, but maybe I didn’t make myself sufficiently clear. I want to remove the cgi.s.php file WITHOUT causing the resulting server errors. I don’t even know why removing it would cause server errors if this file is removed. With the file now gone, my site is inaccessible due to these errors. I don’t know how to start to look for to solve the problem, as I don’t know what the file was even there for in the first place.

Could you please look into the error for me to see if you can give me an idea what might be causing it?

Thank you for your help.

Regarding the above post linking to the Gallery forum, forgive my ignorance, but how does that relate to this problem? The file im having problems with is cgi.s.php, not php.cgi?

Yeah, I know. Too many Google rows! Sorry about that. Anyway, from your phpinfo(), you are using the apache version of php. I had been suspecting it might have been part of a php-cgi bridge of some kind.

Your service’s tech support doesn’t sound like they’re paying attention. If you are not too far away, maybe a phone call would be more productive. Have your trouble ticket or help desk ID handy.

Unfortunately I’m in Australia heh. My tech support has usually been pretty good, so maybe tomorrow I’ll get a more attentive person on the shift that answers my query I’ll hold out hope for that.

Thanks for your continued help!

You have a PM.

I’m posting this for posterity...

You sent me your .htaccess file.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^index\.(html|php|htm)$ /cgi-bin/cgi.php?index.$1&%{QUERY_STRING} [L]
RewriteRule ^aa\-(.*)\/(.*)$ /cgi-bin/cgi.php?$1/$2?%{QUERY_STRING} [L]

This is what’s causing the problem. I suspect hanky-panky. Get rid of it (just rename it).

Leave the MODx ht.haccess files alone for now; they are for friendly URLs. Best get things under control before enabling them.

I would also send this to your tech support. Somebody put this junk in your server, and they don’t seem to think that they did it.