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CiviCRM 5.6.1, WordPress 4.9.8, PHP 7.1.22, MySQL 5.7.23, WordFence 7.1.16

I just started getting this error when trying to create a mailing. It happens with Mosaico and traditional mailings. I previously saw this issue when first using the WordFence security plugin and found a discussion here suggesting to disable WordFence's XSS check, which I did with success until now. That was months ago. The option is still disabled and I even tried disabling WordFence entirely, but no luck. I haven't made any significant changes recently that I can think of. I had no problems with my last weekly mailing.

I also checked with my hosting provider to see if they had made any mod_security rules changes. They hadn't. I don't see anything interesting in the logs. Any ideas?

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  • I am also seeing this error on my personal dev box. It's just a linux box in my closet, not hosted. It has basically the same configuration, minus the WordFence plugin.
    – Mark Westergaard
    Commented Nov 6, 2018 at 1:38

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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I have seen this error occur on WordPress due to a false positive generated in WordFence security plugin.

If that might be your issue, put WordFence Firewall back into "Learning Mode", try saving/testing a Mosaico template email again in Civi and - if that is the problem - then WordFence should Whitelist the action, and the error should disappear.

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  • This worked for me. Thanks.
    – Graham
    Commented Dec 31, 2019 at 15:26
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    Helped me too, though a colleague later said " just try saving the mailing then go into wordfence find the relevant request and whitelist it. That way you are not disabling the functionality while it learns."
    – petednz - fuzion ♦
    Commented Apr 22, 2020 at 21:53
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    There are some more detail instructions here: github.com/veda-consulting/uk.co.vedaconsulting.mosaico/issues/…
    – Luke Stewart
    Commented Apr 22, 2020 at 21:55
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I've run into this error for three reasons:

1: I copied and pasted in text and there was a special character in there that CiviCRM did not like. I figured out which one it was by pasting in only pieces of the text and watching to see when it quit saving and instead gave me the error.

2: I'd upgraded CiviCRM and the permissions weren't correct on some files (I'm logged in as root and therefore have to change owner/group when I upload).

3: A modsecurity issue. My host was able to look at the logs and whitelist the URI that was causing the issue. Last time it was: /civicrm/ajax/rest

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    Aha! This definitely helped.... I was failing with new, blank (no template) mailings, so I didn't think it could be #1. I hadn't upgraded since my most recent successful mailing, so I didn't think it could be #2. My dev box doesn't use mod_security, so I didn't think it was #3, but your mention of "/civicrm/ajax/rest" reminded me that I had applied a small patch for REST.php that was provided by the developers of CiviMobileAPI as a proposed fix for a login issue on WordPress. I offered to test it a few days ago and I apparently forgot to revert! That was it. Thanks!
    – Mark Westergaard
    Commented Nov 6, 2018 at 6:42
  • Yay! Glad to hear that I at least got your mind thinking in the right direction. Sometimes that's all it takes. :D
    – Jenni Simonis
    Commented Nov 7, 2018 at 0:41
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I had this issue too and the solution was a twist on Jenni Simonis's answer so I'll elaborate in case anyone else runs into it.

The specific thing that fixed it for me was granting user & group execute permissions on the wordpress file wp-admin/admin.php.

I was getting a 403 forbidden error in the JS console on this file any time CiviCRM tried to take some kind of ajax action because it was trying to post to /civicrm/ajax/rest through admin.php but didn't have the right permissions.

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  • Welcome to CiviCRM.SE. The number next to a question or answer does not indicate its sequence, but the number of votes it has received; I have altered the reference in your post as a result. This is not a discussion forum, but a Q&A site, and if you are new to Stack Exchange, I would strongly recommend you take the site tour and review the help center.
    – choster
    Commented Mar 29, 2019 at 12:18
  • thanks @choster :)
    – TraceElements
    Commented Mar 30, 2019 at 13:32
  • I still have this issue on WordPress the error I'm getting in the chrome console is "POST example.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=CiviCRM&q=civicrm/ajax/… 500"jquery.min.js?r=p6mna:4 Anyone know what this can be? or how to fix it?
    – netzih
    Commented Oct 4, 2019 at 20:07

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