Symptoms
Apache web-server fails to start with the following error message in configuration:
Note: The name of the ModSecurity rule-set in the error message may vary.
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on CentOS/RHEL-based distributions
# httpd -t
httpd: Syntax error on line 353 of /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf: Syntax error on line 5 of /etc/httpd/conf.d/security2.conf: Syntax error on line 6 of /etc/httpd/conf/modsecurity.d/zz_rules.conf: No matches for the wildcard ‘*.conf’ in ‘/etc/httpd/conf/modsecurity.d/rules/modsecurity_crs-plesk’, failing (use IncludeOptional if required) -
on Debian/Ubuntu-based distributions:
# apache2ctl -t
apache2: Syntax error on line 141 of /etc/apache2/apache2.conf: Syntax error on line 4 of /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/security2.conf: Syntax error on line 6 of /etc/apache2/modsecurity.d/zz_rules.conf: No matches for the wildcard ‘*.conf’ in
‘/etc/apache2/modsecurity.d/rules/tortix’, failing (use IncludeOptional if required)
Cause
The ModSecurity configuration file zz_rules.conf contains links to non-existent files.
Resolution
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Connect to the Plesk server via SSH.
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Open the file zz_rules.conf in a text editor. In this example, we are using the vi editor:
# vi /etc/httpd/conf/modsecurity.d/zz_rules.con
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Replace “Include” with “IncludeOptional” in all lines.
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Save the changes and close the file.
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Start Apache:
# service httpd start
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Log in to Plesk > go to Tools & Settings > Web Application Firewall (ModSecurity) and activate ModSecurity.
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Connect to the Plesk server via SSH.
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Open the file zz_rules.conf in a text editor. In this example, we are using the vi editor:
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# vi /etc/apache2/modsecurity.d/zz_rules.conf
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Replace “Include” with “IncludeOptional” in all lines.
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Save the changes and close the file.
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Start Apache:
# service apache2 start
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Log in to Plesk > go to Tools & Settings > Web Application Firewall (ModSecurity) and activate ModSecurity.
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