Plesk shows the error: PleskPermissionDeniedException: Session token has expired.

Kuzma Ivanov

Updated January 13, 2026 19:06

Plesk for Windows Plesk for Linux kb: technical ABT: Group A

Applicable to:

One of the following error messages appear in Plesk:

PLESK_ERROR: Error in Plesk: Zend_Controller_Exception: Session token has expired.

PLESK_ERROR: Zend_Controller_Exception: Permission denied.#0

PLESK_ERROR: PleskPermissionDeniedException: Session token has expired.

PLESK_ERROR: Suddenly Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0
The following message is logged in Plesk log file /var/log/plesk/panel.log:

# grep 'protection token check' /var/log/plesk/panel.log

ERR [panel] Forgery protection token check failed.

Sessions time for forgery protection token has exceeded.

For Plesk on Linux

Connect to the Plesk server via SSH.
If there is a stuck process in Plesk, cancel it.
Increase PHP timeout in Plesk configuration file:

# echo "session.gc_maxlifetime=86400" >> /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/php.ini
Restart the Plesk service:

# service sw-engine restart

For Plesk on Windows Server

Connect to the Plesk server via RDP.
If there is a stuck process in Plesk, cancel it.
Open the file php.ini located in %plesk_dir%admin\conf.
Increase the session.gc_maxlifetime value:

CONFIG_TEXT: session.gc_maxlifetime=86400
Save the changes and close the file.
Open Plesk Services Monitor and restart Plesk Management Service.