#63678 Warn when a user has reached 'max_questions' mysql parameter by Meuh-42 · Pull Request #9223 · WordPress/wordpress-develop

Meuh-42 · 2025-07-09T15:48:08Z

Wordpress redirect to wp-admin/install.php when a user is rate limited in mysql,

instead of catching and displaying a valid error message

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/63678

This Pull Request is for code review only. Please keep all other discussion in the Trac ticket. Do not merge this Pull Request. See GitHub Pull Requests for Code Review in the Core Handbook for more details.

github-actions · 2025-07-09T15:48:18Z

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github-actions · 2025-07-09T15:48:21Z

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github-actions · 2025-07-09T16:07:47Z

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Meuh-42 · 2025-07-10T08:53:01Z

WordPress redirect to wp-admin/install.php when a user is rate limited in MySQL.

What are the rate limit parameters in MySQL ?

A MySQL user can be created with a set of parameters to limit resources consumption:

MAX_QUERIES_PER_HOUR
MAX_UPDATES_PER_HOUR
MAX_CONNECTIONS_PER_HOUR
MAX_USER_CONNECTIONS

https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.4/en/user-resources.html

Setting these values may help protect the database server under heavy load, help mitigate deny of service attacks.

How to reproduce ?

Set up a WordPress
As root in MySQL, run the following query: ALTER USER 'database_user'@'%' WITH MAX_QUERIES_PER_HOUR 1;
Refresh page: We are now redirected to the installation page

Once the number of query per hour for the user has been reduced (or MAX_QUERIES_PER_HOUR set to a higher value / disabled), WordPress is reachable again.

Expectations

As this is a documented return code from MySQL, WordPress should display the correct error instead of redirecting to the installation page.

Also, as we are hitting a rate-limiting value, we should not try to retry queries (thus making it harder to go below the limited value) but die on-spot.

mindctrl · 2025-07-10T14:24:13Z

+		// User has reached 'max_questions' stop retrying
+		if ( 1226 === $mysql_errno ) {
+			$message = '<h1>' . __( 'Cannot connect to database' ) . "</h1>\n";
+			$message .= '<p>' . sprintf( $this->last_error );


Should this error include some kind of non-technical message, followed by the technical error message?

The average website visitor won't understand this message, but it will be helpful to site owners for debugging/support purposes.

What about something like the following ?

Yeah a clearer title and paragraph before the error message makes sense.

The paragraph before the error message could say "The database server could be connected to (which means your username and password is okay) but the query could not be performed.". That keeps it pretty close to the database selection error message.

For the last line, let's reuse this existing string too.

I wanted to emphasis on the fact that all connection parameters are correct (even database name / connection port)
Same for last sentence, I tried to stay as close as possible to the existing messages to help translators, while being a bit more specific to this particular error message.

But your comments works pretty well as well.

I'm updating my PR

As per today's 7.0 bug scrub:
@johnbillion are you fine with the current implementation? Can we process with this ticket?

peterwilsoncc

This is testing well, I've made a copy suggestion inline.

peterwilsoncc · 2026-10-07T02:44:23Z

+			$message = '<h1>' . __( 'Cannot query database' ) . "</h1>\n";
+			$message .= '<p>' . __( 'The database server could be connected to (which means username and password is okay) but the query could not be performed.' ) . '<br>';
+			$message .= sprintf( $this->last_error );


This copy might be clearer for the first paragraph.

Suggested change

$message = '<h1>' . __( 'Cannot query database' ) . "</h1>\n";

$message .= '<p>' . __( 'The database server could be connected to (which means username and password is okay) but the query could not be performed.' ) . '<br>';

$message .= sprintf( $this->last_error );

$message = '<h1>' . __( 'Cannot query database' ) . "</h1>\n";

$message .= '<p>';

$message .= sprintf(

/* translators: %s The error message returned by the database. */

__( 'The database server could be connected to (which means username and password is okay) but the query could not be performed. The database returned the error: %s.' ),

'<code>' . htmlspecialchars( $this->last_error ) . '</code>'

);

$message .= '</p>';

t-hamano · 2026-10-07T07:48:45Z

 		}

+		// User has reached 'max_questions' stop retrying
+		if ( 1226 === $mysql_errno ) {


Suggested change

if ( 1226 === $mysql_errno ) {

if ( 1226 === $mysql_errno ) {

wp_load_translations_early();

I haven't tested this, but based on an AI-assisted investigation, it seems this could cause a fatal error (Call to undefined function __()) in some environments, such as multisite or SHORTINIT, because __() may be called before the l10n functions are loaded. For example, in multisite, ms-settings.php runs queries before l10n.php is loaded in wp-settings.php. Would this change be appropriate?

Meuh-42 force-pushed the 63678-fix-max_question branch 2 times, most recently from 99960ac to e2d0541 Compare July 10, 2025 08:03

mindctrl reviewed Jul 10, 2025

View reviewed changes

Meuh-42 force-pushed the 63678-fix-max_question branch 2 times, most recently from eb6f8ad to 41035a0 Compare July 11, 2025 07:38

Warn when a user has reached 'max_questions' mysql parameter

380fe97

Meuh-42 force-pushed the 63678-fix-max_question branch from 41035a0 to 380fe97 Compare July 11, 2025 07:58

pento force-pushed the trunk branch from 3af2d27 to 64ede28 Compare July 6, 2026 03:10

Merge branch 'trunk' into 63678-fix-max_question

c4e43bd

johnbillion self-requested a review September 15, 2026 22:55

Merge branch 'trunk' into 63678-fix-max_question

b522b7f

peterwilsoncc reviewed Oct 7, 2026

View reviewed changes

t-hamano reviewed Oct 7, 2026

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#63678 Warn when a user has reached 'max_questions' mysql parameter - #9223

#63678 Warn when a user has reached 'max_questions' mysql parameter#9223
Meuh-42 wants to merge 3 commits into
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	if ( 1226 === $mysql_errno ) {
	if ( 1226 === $mysql_errno ) {
	wp_load_translations_early();

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Test using WordPress Playground

Some things to be aware of

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Meuh-42 commented Jul 10, 2025 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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What are the rate limit parameters in MySQL ?

How to reproduce ?

Expectations

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