Unable to edit wp-config.php via Plesk interface: "You are unable to access"

Sergey Senko

Updated May 13, 2025 12:06

kb: technical Plesk Obsidian for Linux plesk for linux

Symptoms

Unable to edit wp-config.php for any domain via Plesk interface with the following error:

<!DOCTYPE html>     <html class="no-js" lang="en-US">  <head> <title>Attention Required! | Cloudflare</title> <meta charset="UTF-8" /> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=Edge" /> <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1" /> <link rel="stylesheet" id="cf_styles-css" href="/cdn-cgi/styles/cf.errors.css" />  <style>body{margin:0;padding:0}</style>  <script> if (!navigator.cookieEnabled) { window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function () { var cookieEl = document.getElementById('cookie-alert'); cookieEl.style.display = 'block'; }) } </script>  </head> <body> <div id="cf-wrapper"> <div class="cf-alert cf-alert-error cf-cookie-error" id="cookie-alert" data-translate="enable_cookies">Please enable cookies.</div> <div id="cf-error-details" class="cf-error-details-wrapper"> <div class="cf-wrapper cf-header cf-error-overview"> <h1 data-translate="block_headline">Sorry, you have been blocked</h1> <h2 class="cf-subheadline"><span data-translate="unable_to_access">You are unable to access</span> example.com </h2> </div> <div class="cf-section cf-highlight"> <div class="cf-wrapper"> <div class="cf-screenshot-container cf-screenshot-full"> <span class="cf-no-screenshot error"></span> </div> </div> </div> <div class="cf-section cf-wrapper"> <div class="cf-columns two"> <div class="cf-column"> <h2 data-translate="blocked_why_headline">Why have I been blocked?</h2> <p data-translate="blocked_why_detail">This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.</p> </div> <div class="cf-column"> <h2 data-translate="blocked_resolve_headline">What can I do to resolve this?</h2> <p data-translate="blocked_resolve_detail">You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="cf-error-footer cf-wrapper w-240 lg:w-full py-10 sm:py-4 sm:px-8 mx-auto text-center sm:text-left border-solid border-0 border-t border-gray-300"> <p class="text-13"> <span class="cf-footer-item sm:block sm:mb-1">Cloudflare Ray ID: <strong class="font-semibold">8ba359d0ffd49748</strong></span> <span class="cf-footer-separator sm:hidden">•</span> <span id="cf-footer-item-ip" class="cf-footer-item hidden sm:block sm:mb-1"> Your IP: <button type="button" id="cf-footer-ip-reveal" class="cf-footer-ip-reveal-btn">Click to reveal</button> <span class="hidden" id="cf-footer-ip">195.214.233.8</span> <span class="cf-footer-separator sm:hidden">•</span> </span> <span class="cf-footer-item sm:block sm:mb-1"><span>Performance & security by</span> <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.cloudflare.com/5xx-error-landing" id="brand_link" target="_blank">Cloudflare</a></span> </p> <script>(function(){function d(){var b=a.getElementById("cf-footer-item-ip"),c=a.getElementById("cf-footer-ip-reveal");b&&"classList"in b&&(b.classList.remove("hidden"),c.addEventListener("click",function(){c.classList.add("hidden");a.getElementById("cf-footer-ip").classList.remove("hidden")}))}var a=document;document.addEventListener&&a.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",d)})();</script> </div> </div> </div> <script> window._cf_translation = {}; </script> </body> </html>
This behavior is not reproducible when accessing Plesk interface directly via server IP.
Plesk interface is behind Cloudflare proxy

Cause

The wp-config.php editing is blocked by Cloudflare, the message shown in the editor is an HTML document, which translates to the following page:

Sorry, you have been blocked
You are unable to access example.com
Why have I been blocked?

This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block, including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.
What can I do to resolve this?

You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page.

Cloudflare Ray ID: hfdd73ghg94hf78 • Your IP:
203.0.113.2 • Performance & security by Cloudflare

Resolution

Contact Cloudflare support team or disable proxy for Plesk interface domain.