ModSecurity tripped with unknown error on export

I’ve used this plugin for years and now getting an “unknown error” when trying to export.

Dug into it and found that it is triggering a ModSecurity error at the host that thinks it is a PHP injection attack.

Below is the ModSecurity log from the host server:
Message: Access denied with code 403 (phase 2). Test ‘REQUEST_COOKIES|!REQUEST_COOKIES:/__utm/|REQUEST_COOKIES_NAMES|ARGS_NAMES|ARGS|XML:/*’ against ‘@rx (?:<\?(?!xml\s)|<\?php|\[(?:/|\\\\)?php\])’ is true. [file “/etc/apache2/conf.d/modsec_vendor_configs/OWASP3/rules/REQUEST-933-APPLICATION-ATTACK-PHP.conf”] [line “41”] [id “933100”] [msg “PHP Injection Attack: PHP Open Tag Found”] [logdata “Matched Data: <? found within filter_rules_hierarhy=[]&taxonomy_to_export=&export_only_modified_stuff=0&export_only_new_stuff=0&sub_post_type_to_export=&selected_post_type=post&export_type=specific&ids[]=1&cc_label[]=date&cc_php[]=0&cc_code[]=&cc_sql[]=0&cc_options[]=0&cc_type[]=date&cc_value[]=date&cc_name[]=date&cc_settings[]=0&ids[]=1&cc_label[]=title&cc_php[]=0&cc_code[]=&cc_sql[]=0&cc_options[]=0&cc_type[]=title&cc_value[]=title&cc_name[]=title&cc_settings[]=0&ids[]=1&cc_label[]=permalink&cc_php[]=0&cc…”] [severity “CRITICAL”] [tag “application-multi”] [tag “language-php”] [tag “platform-multi”] [tag “attack-injection-php”] [tag “OWASP_CRS/WEB_ATTACK/PHP_INJECTION”] [tag “OWASP_TOP_10/A1”] [MatchedString “filter_rules_hierarhy=[]&taxonomy_to_export=&export_only_modified_stuff=0&export_only_new_stuff=0&sub_post_type_to_export=&selected_post_type=post&export_type=specific&ids[]=1&cc_label[]=date&cc_php[]=0&cc_code[]=&cc_sql[]=0&cc_options[]=0&cc_type[]=date&cc_value[]=date&cc_name[]=date&cc_settings[]=0&ids[]=1&cc_label[]=title&cc_php[]=0&cc_code[]=&cc_sql[]=0&cc_options[]=0&cc_type[]=title&cc_value[]=title&cc_name[]=title&cc_settings[]=0&ids[]=1&cc_label[]=permalink&cc_php[]=0&cc_code[]=&cc_sql[]=0&cc_options[]=0&cc_type[]=permalink&cc_value[]=permalink&cc_name[]=permalink&cc_settings[]=0&ids[]=1&cc_label[]=url&cc_php[]=0&cc_code[]=0&cc_sql[]=0&cc_options[]={“is_export_featured”:true,”is_export_attached”:true,”image_separator”:”|”}&cc_type[]=image_url&cc_value[]=url&cc_name[]=image url&cc_settings[]=&ids[]=1&cc_label[]=category&cc_php[]=0&cc_code[]=&cc_sql[]=0&cc_options[]=0&cc_type[]=cats&cc_value[]=category&cc_name[]=categories&cc_settings[]=0&ids[]=1&cc_label[]=&cc_php[]=0&cc_code[]=&cc_sql[]=0&cc_type[]=&cc_options[]=0&cc_value[]=&cc_name[]=&cc_settings[]=0&export_variations=1&export_variations_title=1&main_xml_tag=data&record_xml_tag=post&custom_xml_cdata_logic=auto&show_cdata_in_preview=0&simple_custom_xml_cdata_logic=auto&delimiter=,&export_to=csv&export_to_sheet=csv&xml_template_type=simple&8=producttitle&12=productdescription&19=productlink&23=useproductfeaturedimage&29=productimages&38=useproductprice&44=useproductsaleprice&50=usewoocommercestockvalues&60=usewoocommerceproductcategories&64=mapproductcategories&78=1&85=automatically&89=selectfromwoocommerceproductattributes&95=selectfromwoocommerceproductattributes&101=selectfromwoocommerceproductattributes&107=keepblank&118=selectfromwoocommerceproductattributes&127=selectfromwoocommerceproductattributes&135=selectfromwoocommerceproductattributes&include_shipping=include&148=usewoocommerceproductvalues&152=&160=no&custom_xml_template=<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>..<data>…<!– begin loop –>…<post>…..</post>…<!– end loop –>..</data>&custom_custom_xml_cdata_logic=auto&wp_all_export_main_code=<?php….?>&save_template_as=0&name=&load_template=&_wpnonce_template=b3790d5cc9&_wp_http_referer=/wp-admin/admin.php?page=pmxe-admin-export&action=template&_wpnonce_template=b3790d5cc9&is_submitted=1″]