Fatal error: empty wp-config.php and .htaccess files when disk is full

  • Resolved vbbp

    (@vbbp)


    2 months ago

    Hi all,

    Is it correct that the plugin regularly (wp-cron) checks and modifies wp-config.php and .htaccess files? We host multiple WordPress instances and recently had the issue that we were running out of disk space. Once this was happening and wp-cron kicked in, it seems that the plugin tried to recreate the files (which was impossible due to missing disk space). This resulted in two unusable empty files wp-config.php and .htaccess, which made the WordPress instances completely unusable until we restored a previous version.

    Proposal: Create the files at a different location, ensure that the file content is present, and then move them to the correct location.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Plugin Support chandelierrr

    (@shanedelierrr)

    1 month, 4 weeks ago

    Hello @vbbp,

    Glad you reached out, and I’m here to help!

    To answer your question: yes, Solid Security regularly refreshes its rules about once an hour if the Write to Files setting is enabled. On sites with low disk space, the file writing can get cut off, leaving the file(s) empty.

    To prevent this going forward, you can safely turn off that setting in Security > Settings > Global Settings. Your existing rules will stay in place, as they generally won’t need frequent updating.

    If Solid Security releases a major update that adds new required directives, you can add them manually from the Tools page. If using NGINX, the rules are written to the configured NGINX file path and may require a reload.

    Hope this helps, and let us know if you need further help here.

    Thread Starter vbbp

    (@vbbp)

    1 month, 4 weeks ago

    Hi @shanedelierrr it is good to see there is an option to turn it off. However, most people might not think about this and would run into a similar problem in case they run out of disk space.

    So if you are able to confirm the problem (e.g., through experimenting in a docker container), I highly suggest to either propose a fix within your plugin to avoid such empty files in the future or even propose a change request for the WordPress Core code.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

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