Firewall – Error reading config data, configuration file could be corrupted.

Hi Andrew,

Sorry for the trouble — does the rest of the site work normally when this issue happens? I haven’t seen this on other sites, so it may be some settings on your host or a problem writing files.

If you can get to the Wordfence Diagnostics page click the link near the bottom of the page that says “Click to view your system’s configuration in a new window”, and copy and paste these 3 lines:
* The PHP Version number (from the title of the page)
* System (in the first table)
* Server API (also in the first table)

If you know how to find the file size of the config file, using your host’s control panel or FTP, can you check the size of this file?
wp-content/wflogs/config.php

-Matt R

Hi Matt,

Yes rest of the site works fine, just seems to be the firewall that won’t switch on.

PHP Version 5.2.6
System Linux lin240.gridhost.co.uk 2.6.32.21-grsec #6 SMP Fri May 20 17:37:06 BST 2011 x86_64
Server API CGI

Filesize of the config.php file is 0 and the permission is 0644 (on everything in that file).

Regards

Andrew

Hi again Matt,

I changed the PHP version used by the site to 5.6 and it all seems to be working fine now ??

Regards

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Great, thanks for the update. We tested on a somewhat newer version of 5.2, since WordPress still supports it — I’m not quite sure why the old version of PHP would cause an issue reading/writing the files, but that is good to know.

PHP 5.6 is a lot safer than 5.2 too!

-Matt R

FYI – I just reproduced both the problem and the fix.

Thanks.

Hi guys, happening here on a client site, don’t have the option to update PHP. Is there an alternative solution? Using PHP Version 5.2.6
Thanks,
Darren.

Hi Darren,

I don’t know of any other solution — PHP 5.2.6 was released way back in May 2008 and has multiple known vulnerabilities itself, so it is important to update it for that reason as well.

Most hosts have a choice of major PHP versions that you can pick from, and if that’s not available, the host should really update PHP for you. I’d consider moving the site to a different host if PHP can’t be updated. Sorry I don’t have a better solution.

-Matt R

Thanks Matt, yes 100% agree. I’ve looked into that, but the host are being awkward and costly for implementing that. We’ll just move host it seems. Thanks!

Hi,

Having same problems over here…

PHP Version 5.4.45 with Easyspace / shared Hosting.

Would this version of PHP be the root of the problem?

Screenshot:
https://prntscr.com/bvdq8a

Unable to re-build the file, even after I delete the directory too

Anything else to try?

Thanks!

my error_log file is like 5mb big with this error:

Error reading Wordfence Firewall config data, configuration file could be corrupted or inaccessible. public_html/wp-content/wflogs/config.php

filoveg, what is your PHP version?

We’re having a similar problem with Wordfence 6.1.0 on PHP 5.3.3 and WordPress 4.5.3. We can rebuild the config file through the interface, but it reverts to zero length, probably when wp cron runs.

We have made some changes to how config caching works in the latest version. If you are still having issues after upgrading, let me know.

I’m getting the same errormessage ie “Error reading Wordfence Firewall config data, configuration file could be corrupted or inaccessible. Path: /html/wp-content/wflogs/config.php Click here to rebuild the configuration file.”
And if I try clicking, nothing happens.
I’m running Wordfence Version 6.1.15, on a WordPress 4.6 site with PHP 5.4.45-0+deb7u4.
It’s a completely new install with no other plugins running and twentysixteen, theme.

Hi osaalbinson,
does it work if you delete (or rename) the config.php file manually?