In rolling out the Modsecurity updates of February 28, our team has uncovered a few recurring issues that are affecting a good portion of our users. We are currently working on updates to our configuration to fix these issues.
Inability to update/publish a page or post
Presents as “Site cannot be reached” error
90% of the issues we are seeing have to do with not being able to update, publish, or preview a page or post. In most cases, this seems to be related to pages with Text Blocks that have pasted content from an outside source like a Word doc. Modsecurity is flagging this code as potentially malicious. We are aware that this code is typically not malicious and are working on a fix so that page publishing can resume.
Inability to preview changes
Presents as “Site cannot be reached” error
In addition to not being able to update/publish certain pages and posts, some users are also finding that they cannot preview content. This may or may not be related to the publishing issue, but is under investigation regardless.
Inability to save page/post as “Draft”
Presents as “Site cannot be reached” error
Saving pages to “Draft” status is causing an issue for several users. In the event that this happens, it might be advantageous to try rebuilding the page from scratch if the edit needs to be up quickly. We are currently working on a fix for this issue.
Placing Images in a Text Block
No error – content just won’t show up
For sites that have launched and no longer publish to “wiscweb.wisc.edu” domains, users are noticing that they can no longer place images from their Media Library into a Text Block. The images load to the Media Library just fine but when placed in a page, just don’t show up. We are aware of this issue and are currently working on a fix.
Form Submission Issue with reCAPTCHA Field
Presents as “The reCAPTCHA was invalid” AND “Site cannot be reached” errors
Some admins/editors have noted that their CAPTCHA settings are not working on their digital forms built with Gravity Forms. Their site users are receiving a message that states that the reCAPTCHA was invalid.
When they attempt to remove the CAPTCHA field from the form, users receive the “site can’t be reached” message upon publish:
We are aware of this issue and are currently working on a fix.
Form Issue with Adding Dropdown Fields
Presents as “Ajax error while adding field”
At least one administrator/editor has reported an issue with adding a new dropdown field to their Gravity Forms form. When attempted, the user received an Ajax.php error message. We are aware of this issue and are currently investigating whether or not it is related to the Modsecurity changes.
