LLAR update to 2.25.18 resulted in Critical Site Error: Could fix it wp-cli

I accessed my website normally via web browser today and got a HTTP 503 rendered by WordPress with a minimal “Down for scheduled maintenance” message box.

Tried again a few seconds later and it worked again.

Immediately thereafter I got the automated WordPress email “Some plugins and themes have automatically updated”. Among the updated plugins:

Limit Login Attempts Reloaded (from version 2.25.16 to 2.25.18)

Soon later I access my website again and it only showed a minimal error box informing that there’s critical / fatal site error, an email got sent to the admin email address. Opened the email “Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue” and it and my server’s ~/log/php_error.log contained this:

PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Failed opening required '/data/web/•••/html/apps/••••••/wp-content/plugins/limit-login-attempts-reloaded/core/App.php' (include_path=".") in /data/web/•••/html/apps/••••••/wp-content/plugins/limit-login-attempts-reloaded/limit-login-attempts-reloaded.php:40
Stack trace:
#0 /data/web/•••/html/apps/••••••/wp-settings.php(453): include_once()
#1 /data/web/•••/html/apps/••••••/wp-config.php(99): require_once('/data/web/e1291...')
#2 /data/web/•••/html/apps/••••••/wp-load.php(50): require_once('/data/web/e1291...')
#3 /data/web/•••/html/apps/••••••/wp-blog-header.php(13): require_once('/data/web/e1291...')
#4 /data/web/•••/html/apps/••••••/index.php(17): require('/data/web/e1291...')
#5 {main}
  thrown in /data/web/•••/html/apps/••••••/wp-content/plugins/limit-login-attempts-reloaded/limit-login-attempts-reloaded.php on line 40

Rescue operation in wp-cli

$ ssh webhost

$ wp plugin deactivate limit-login-attempts-reloaded
Plugin 'limit-login-attempts-reloaded' deactivated.
Success: Deactivated 1 of 1 plugins.
  • Cleared my browser cookies and logged in again to /wp-admin/. Worked fine.
  • Now re-enabling the plugin.
$ wp plugin activate limit-login-attempts-reloaded
Plugin 'limit-login-attempts-reloaded' activated.
Success: Activated 1 of 1 plugins.
  • Accessing the website again both Logged-In and anonymous both works fine again.

Followup

  • I have no issue currently, but wanted to inform you.
  • It’s interesting that simply deactivating and re-activating but doing nothing else, fixed the issue. Is LLAR performing some cleanup routines counter-resets / etc on (re)-activation, which may resolved this?

 

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