My apache error_logs started having these lines about 2 weeks ago:
[Fri Sep 06 10:07:05 2013] [alert] [client 5.1.8.5] /.htaccess: deny requires at least two arguments, ‘from’ followed by hostnames or IP-address wildcards
(when this happens, The browser shows Error 500.)
These website runs wordpress.
I didn’t find anything special in my .htaccess file, So I deleted it.
i even deleted all .htaccess files in this virtual server, but the problem continued.
I restarted apache2 afterwards,
But the problem continues.
The problem stopped when I edited
/etc/apache2/apache2.conf
and replaced .htaccess filename definition there to some other non=existant name.
So i’m worried that there’s “meta” .htaccess file or pseudo file somewhere in the system,
which affects all other .htaccess somehow.
How comes?
Is that possible?
does it sound familiar?
Thank you!.
(my system is ubuntu 12, runs for over a year now, with only minor incidents)
Is this line from the access log, or the error log? You said access log, but the line format doesn’t appear to be Apache access log format… Can you post full excerpts from the access and error log at the time in question?
What is requested exactly at the time when that error occurs? Anything incorrect in the virtual server config file?
There’s no “global” .htaccess file, they always are valid for the directory they are in, and its subdirectories.