Can't save new user - 500 Internal server error for connectors/security/user.php

On a 2.2.10 Revo install (I know, we need to update, it's already scheduled) suddenly the following happens: when I try to create and save a new user, I can't save the user. Chrome developer console says:



user.php does exist and looks normal.

The Apache error log has the following error:



Does anyone have a clue what could be causing this?

Did you make any recent changes to the hosting environment?

Is there anything odd near that line in config.inc.php?

It's possible that you've been hacked.

Thanks for your responses! I don't think anything changed in the hosting environment, but I'm going to check again. In config.inc.php there is nothing odd, I compared the file and found nothing unusual...

The Chrome console also gives the following error (slightly different than the one I already posted):



However I can open that file in the browser and get a response.

This is what you should have for line 65

This is from a fresh installation of 2.2.10

I think I see what the problem is. You have E_NOTICE errors and possibly display_errors() turned on (they should be off on a production server) and it looks like your server is not setting the HTTP_HOST server variable.

That makes PHP produce the warning message when it sees $SERVER['HTTP_HOST'], which leads to the 500 error, since that member of the array is undefined.

Thanks Sottwell and BobRay! Sottwell, I checked the line and it is exactly as the one you posted. So I'm hopeful the site has not been hacked (shouldn't there be other problems as well if it has been hacked?)

BobRay, I'm impressed by your analysis. Thanks for your help! This week we're updating the site to the newest Revo version and we'll check all these settings as well. I hope this will resolve the issue!

I wouldn't be surprised if the newer version is more fault-tolerant.

Oddly, yesterday I ran into a very similar situation on a localhost installation. I had just installed a brand-new copy of Revo 2.3, built from the github repository. After an hour or so of working on a new Site Template package, I was suddenly getting white screens when trying to edit resources. Nothing in the MODX logs, but an examination of the MAMP php error log showed a critical class wasn't found.

So I went into another installation and copy/pasted the core directories (not components or config), and all is well again. What happened? I dunno. I've done another installation in the same way; we'll see if it falls down any time soon.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that at the same time the System Settings had stopped saving. Also a critical class wasn't found. [ed. note: sottwell last edited this post 9 years, 10 months ago.]

Well, we updated to 2.2.14 and the problem persists. So I think it has to do with the server configuration. However, we still can't find the problem. We checked if E_NOTICE errors and display_errors were turned off (they are) and also if the http_host variable is set, it is.

Things we also tried: disabling the .htaccess file, checking the rights of the folder+file that is giving problems (folders 755, file 644), increasing the php memory, overwriting the core files like Susan suggested. Nothing helps.

When we turn display_errors on in the .htaccess file (in hopes of finding the problem) we did find that instead of the POST error (/connectors/security/user.php 500 (Internal Server Error) ) there is a different error in the Firebug panel (and no 500 error):



However the POST data in the Firebug console does have the POST info but no answer, so I think it's the same problem.

We're out of ideas for now... Next step is getting help from the host. I'll let you know what happens.