Plesk

Errors in /var/log/modsec_audit.log: collections_remove_stale: Failed to access DBM file “/var/asl/data/msa/global”: Permission denied

Symptoms

  1. Plesk is running on Debian or Ubuntu.
  2. Atomic Basic ModSecurity ruleset is enabled at Tools & Settings > Web Application Firewall (ModSecurity) 
  3. Error in
    /var/log/modsec_audit.log
    :

    --b8876e6d-H-- Message: collections_remove_stale: Failed to access DBM file "/var/asl/data/msa/global": Permission denied
    Stopwatch: 1494012668966140
    Stopwatch2: 1494012668966140 3289; combined=1756, p1=90, p2=1487, p3=20, p4=49, p5=62, sr=7, sw=0, l=0, gc=48
    ModSecurity for Apache/2.9.0 (http://www.modsecurity.org/); 201705041602.
    Server: Apache
    Engine-Mode: "ENABLED"

Cause

This is Plesk bug with ID #PPPM-6202 which will be fixed in future updates.

Resolution

As a workaround, log in to Plesk server via SSH and change the permissions:

# chown www-data.www-data /var/asl/data/msa
# chown www-data.www-data /var/asl/data/audit
# chown www-data.www-data /var/asl/data/suspicious
# chmod o-rx -R /var/asl/data/*
# chmod ug+rwx -R /var/asl/data/*

If the issue persists, turn off the affected rule by the rule's ID in Plesk.

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