403 error when trying to login

Hi,

I’m having access issues with InvoicePlane v1.5.11. I’m on shared CPanel hosting, currently running PHP 7.4.

I’ve had InvoicePlane installed on CPanel hosting via Softaculous for a few years, and I’m not certain what broke the installation as I’ve not been into IP for a few months (may have been a change of PHP version), but I’m now getting a 403 error (red screen) when trying to log in - and basically can’t go anywhere. I also can’t upgrade (currently) as I have multiple Wordpress sites in the same hosting, that have plugins that still break with PHP 8+

I figured out how to enable debug logging /application/logs, but that’s not turning up much…

DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:40 → Total execution time: 0.0231
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:50 → UTF-8 Support Enabled
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:50 → Global POST, GET and COOKIE data sanitized
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:54 → UTF-8 Support Enabled
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:54 → Global POST, GET and COOKIE data sanitized
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:54 → Sessions MX_Controller Initialized
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:54 → Config file loaded: /home/mattsimn/invoice/application/config/invoice_plane.php
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:54 → Encryption: Auto-configured driver ‘openssl’.
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:54 → File loaded: /home/mattsimn/invoice/application/modules/settings/models/Mdl_settings.php
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:54 → File loaded: /home/mattsimn/invoice/application/modules/settings/models/Mdl_versions.php
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:54 → File loaded: /home/mattsimn/invoice/application/controllers/…/modules/layout/controllers/Layout.php
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:54 → Layout MX_Controller Initialized
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:54 → File loaded: /home/mattsimn/invoice/application/modules/layout/views/alerts.php
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:54 → File loaded: /home/mattsimn/invoice/application/modules/sessions/views/session_passwordreset.php
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:54 → Total execution time: 0.0237
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:58 → UTF-8 Support Enabled
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:58 → Global POST, GET and COOKIE data sanitized
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:58 → Sessions MX_Controller Initialized
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:58 → Config file loaded: /home/mattsimn/invoice/application/config/invoice_plane.php
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:58 → Encryption: Auto-configured driver ‘openssl’.
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:58 → File loaded: /home/mattsimn/invoice/application/modules/settings/models/Mdl_settings.php
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:58 → File loaded: /home/mattsimn/invoice/application/modules/settings/models/Mdl_versions.php
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:58 → File loaded: /home/mattsimn/invoice/application/controllers/…/modules/layout/controllers/Layout.php
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:58 → Layout MX_Controller Initialized
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:58 → File loaded: /home/mattsimn/invoice/application/modules/layout/views/alerts.php
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:58 → File loaded: /home/mattsimn/invoice/application/modules/sessions/views/session_login.php
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:08:58 → Total execution time: 0.0338
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:09:02 → UTF-8 Support Enabled
DEBUG - 2023-06-01 22:09:02 → Global POST, GET and COOKIE data sanitized

I’ve tried to remove .htaccess, but no difference, and I’m struggling where to go next to try and diagnose the problem. Is there any way to get more detailed logging, or pinpoint ‘where’ the 403 might be coming from? Good/bad username password will yield the same result… red screen with

An Error Was Encountered

The action you have requested is not allowed.

Any action like login/password reset will give the same result.

After getting errors initially, I attempted to upgrade, and realised the PHP upgrade requirement, and Wordpress issue with PHP 8, so went back to PHP 7.4, and tried to roll back to a previous backup - but that’s not working. I’m wondering whether I can easily do a parallel fresh install of a version compatible with PHP 7.4), and hook it up to the same DB?

Thanks in advance!

I’m wondering whether I can easily do a parallel fresh install of a version compatible with PHP 7.4), and hook it up to the same DB

Yes, you can. Version 1.5.11 is the last version compatible with PHP 7.4.
Actually, you can also make v1.6 run with PHP 7.4

4 pieces of advice:

  1. First check the PHP version on your host. Make a file called info.php and place the function phpinfo() in there
  2. Softaculous made a version 1.6, see if that will help you.
  3. I would NOT use IP and WordPress on the same site. Separate it and it will also solve your PHP8 problem.
  4. the v1.6 .zip file, unzip it, you’ll get a directory called ip.
    Remove the vendor directory and the composer.lock file
    Open composer.json and find the PHP requirement. Make that 7.4 instead of 8.1
    Run composer install
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