{"id":10,"date":"2012-05-27T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-27T22:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pheonixsolutions.com\/?p=10"},"modified":"2026-08-31T17:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T11:51:16","slug":"plesk-internal-server-error","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pheonixsolutions.com\/blog\/plesk-internal-server-error\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Fix Plesk Internal Server Error with PHP CGI\/FCGI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When using Plesk PHP 5.3.x<\/strong>, PHP applications may return an Internal Server Error (500)<\/strong> when the PHP handler is configured as CGI<\/strong> or FastCGI (FCGI)<\/strong>. Changing the PHP handler alone may not resolve the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A common cause is incorrect ownership of the suexec<\/code> binary, which prevents Apache from executing PHP scripts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prerequisites<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before proceeding, ensure you have:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • A Linux server with Plesk installed<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Root or sudo access<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • SSH access to the server<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • PHP configured to use CGI or FastCGI<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Implementation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Step 1: Verify the Error<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    If your websites display an Internal Server Error<\/strong>, check the Apache error log. You may find an error similar to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Premature end<\/strong> of<\/strong> script headers: cgi_wrapper<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (13)Permission denied: exec of<\/strong> ‘\/usr\/sbin\/suexec’ failed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This indicates that Apache is unable to execute the suexec<\/code> binary due to incorrect permissions or ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Step 2: Check the Ownership of suexec<\/code><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Run the following command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ls -l \/usr\/sbin\/suexec<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If the ownership is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    root root<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    it should be changed to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    root apache<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Step 3: Update the Ownership<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Execute the following command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    chown root:apache \/usr\/sbin\/suexec<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Verify the changes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    ls -l \/usr\/sbin\/suexec<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The ownership should now display as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    root apache<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    If Plesk websites using the CGI<\/strong> or FastCGI<\/strong> PHP handler are returning an Internal Server Error<\/strong>, correcting the ownership of the suexec<\/code> binary can resolve the issue. After updating the ownership to root:apache<\/code>, verify that PHP pages load correctly and no further suexec<\/code> permission errors appear in the Apache logs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Introduction When using Plesk PHP 5.3.x, PHP applications may return an Internal Server Error (500) when the PHP handler is configured as CGI or FastCGI (FCGI). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1019],"tags":[244,266],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cloud-aws","tag-internal-server-error","tag-plesk-php","psol-cat-cloud-aws"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phn2x7-a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pheonixsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pheonixsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pheonixsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pheonixsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pheonixsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pheonixsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11215,"href":"https:\/\/pheonixsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/11215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pheonixsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pheonixsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pheonixsolutions.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}