Resolved Modsecurity can't start Apache2

[Alaa Mansour]

Hello,
I have chose Atomic corp basic rules, but accidentally I have run the following command on linux:
aum -u

• plesk sbin modsecurity_ctl --disable
• plesk sbin modsecurity_ctl --enable
• service httpd restart

and now apache2 service can't run, and give me the following error:

Error: modsecurity_ctl failed: START httpd_modules_ctl --disable security2
/opt/psa/admin/sbin/pleskrc execution failed:
Job for apache2.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status apache2.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
websrvmng: /opt/psa/admin/sbin/apache_control_adapter execution failed:
INFO: [Fri Sep 20 12:03:09 CEST 2019]: Service: apache2, Action: start
Trying to start service apache2... failed
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps apache2[25100]: Output of config test was:
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps apache2[25100]: [Fri Sep 20 12:03:09.969686 2019] [so:warn] [pid 25109] AH01574: module unique_id_module is already loaded, skipping
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps apache2[25100]: AH00526: Syntax error on line 24 of /etc/apache2/modsecurity.d/rules/tortix/modsec/tortix_waf.conf:
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps apache2[25100]: ModSecurity: failed to load IPs from: /etc/asl/whitelist Could not open ipmatch file "/etc/asl/whitelist": No such file or directory
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps apache2[25100]: Action 'configtest' failed.
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps apache2[25100]: The Apache error log may have more information.
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: apache2.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Apache2 web server.
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: apache2.service: Unit entered failed state.
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: apache2.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

WARNING!
Some problems are found during start service apache2(see log file: /var/log/plesk/rc_actions.log)

Continue...

/opt/psa/admin/sbin/pleskrc execution failed:
Job for apache2.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status apache2.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
websrvmng: /opt/psa/admin/sbin/apache_control_adapter execution failed:
INFO: [Fri Sep 20 12:03:09 CEST 2019]: Service: apache2, Action: start
Trying to start service apache2... failed
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps apache2[25100]: Output of config test was:
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps apache2[25100]: [Fri Sep 20 12:03:09.969686 2019] [so:warn] [pid 25109] AH01574: module unique_id_module is already loaded, skipping
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps apache2[25100]: AH00526: Syntax error on line 24 of /etc/apache2/modsecurity.d/rules/tortix/modsec/tortix_waf.conf:
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps apache2[25100]: ModSecurity: failed to load IPs from: /etc/asl/whitelist Could not open ipmatch file "/etc/asl/whitelist": No such file or directory
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps apache2[25100]: Action 'configtest' failed.
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps apache2[25100]: The Apache error log may have more information.
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: apache2.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Apache2 web server.
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: apache2.service: Unit entered failed state.
Sep 20 12:03:10 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: apache2.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

WARNING!
Some problems are found during start service apache2(see log file: /var/log/plesk/rc_actions.log)

Continue...

/opt/psa/admin/sbin/pleskrc execution failed:
Job for apache2.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status apache2.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.

systemctl status apache2.service:

● apache2.service - LSB: Apache2 web server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/apache2; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
  Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
           └─apache2-systemd.conf
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2019-09-20 12:01:21 CEST; 40s ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 23255 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/apache2 stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 23515 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/apache2 start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Sep 20 12:01:21 plesk.mns.ps apache2[23515]: [Fri Sep 20 12:01:21.490035 2019] [so:warn] [pid 23525] AH01574: module security2_module is already loaded, skipping
Sep 20 12:01:21 plesk.mns.ps apache2[23515]: [Fri Sep 20 12:01:21.490104 2019] [so:warn] [pid 23525] AH01574: module unique_id_module is already loaded, skipping
Sep 20 12:01:21 plesk.mns.ps apache2[23515]: AH00526: Syntax error on line 24 of /etc/apache2/modsecurity.d/rules/tortix/modsec/tortix_waf.conf:
Sep 20 12:01:21 plesk.mns.ps apache2[23515]: ModSecurity: failed to load IPs from: /etc/asl/whitelist Could not open ipmatch file "/etc/asl/whitelist": No such file
Sep 20 12:01:21 plesk.mns.ps apache2[23515]: Action 'configtest' failed.
Sep 20 12:01:21 plesk.mns.ps apache2[23515]: The Apache error log may have more information.
Sep 20 12:01:21 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: apache2.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1
Sep 20 12:01:21 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Apache2 web server.
Sep 20 12:01:21 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: apache2.service: Unit entered failed state.
Sep 20 12:01:21 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: apache2.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
~

when I try to start the service I have this error also:

Unable to start service: Unable to manage service by apache_control_adapter: ('start', 'web'). Error: INFO: [Fri Sep 20 12:11:26 CEST 2019]: Service: apache2, Action: start Trying to start service apache2... failed Sep 20 12:11:26 plesk.mns.ps apache2[3896]: Output of config test was: Sep 20 12:11:26 plesk.mns.ps apache2[3896]: [Fri Sep 20 12:11:26.751446 2019] [so:warn] [pid 3905] AH01574: module unique_id_module is already loaded, skipping Sep 20 12:11:26 plesk.mns.ps apache2[3896]: AH00526: Syntax error on line 24 of /etc/apache2/modsecurity.d/rules/tortix/modsec/tortix_waf.conf: Sep 20 12:11:26 plesk.mns.ps apache2[3896]: ModSecurity: failed to load IPs from: /etc/asl/whitelist Could not open ipmatch file "/etc/asl/whitelist": No such file or directory Sep 20 12:11:26 plesk.mns.ps apache2[3896]: Action 'configtest' failed. Sep 20 12:11:26 plesk.mns.ps apache2[3896]: The Apache error log may have more information. Sep 20 12:11:26 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: apache2.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1 Sep 20 12:11:26 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Apache2 web server. Sep 20 12:11:26 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: apache2.service: Unit entered failed state. Sep 20 12:11:26 plesk.mns.ps systemd[1]: apache2.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'. WARNING! Some problems are found during start service apache2(see log file: /var/log/plesk/rc_actions.log) Continue... /opt/psa/admin/sbin/pleskrc execution failed: Job for apache2.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status apache2.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.

 

[Schneidi]

Hi,

i had the same this morning after packet issues with mod_security.

my solution:

create empty file: /etc/asl/whitelist with your fav editor, save it, restart apache

This fixed my issue.

regards
Schneidi

 

[trialotto]

@Alaa Mansour and @Schneidi

This issue is very likely to be related with a more general ModSec issue that Plesk had a couple of days ago - it was related to update dependencies of aum package.

In essence, it would be recommended to uninstall ModSecurity and reinstall it via the command line installer, in specific the command : plesk sbin autoinstaller.

The whole idea behind this recommendation is that you will get a clean installation of ModSec packages AND the required micro-updates (and in particular micro-update #68 that is intended to patch the whole issue).

Please note that simply removing or editing a file would not be a good idea, since that would imply that the remainder of the old files and config related to ModSec and/or the older version of aum package could still exist on your system - this is very likely to cause problems in the near future.

Hope the above helps a bit.

Kind regards............

 

[Schneidi]

Hi Trialotto,

i tried this 1^st and got an error message depenting on the issue with the mod_security package, so this module was already re-installed.

regards
DocSchneidi