Thanks for the response. I made no changes/edits on the file system as root or otherwise.
The website was working last night, then this morning it suddenly was not.
The only two impactful things I can think of are:
- A WordPress user may have modified a file (inadvertently or otherwise) from the WP backend (i.e. add/remove plugin, edit any files via WP’s editor, etc)
- Some automated part of ApisCP modified files but didn’t chown properly (this seems highly unlikely as only one sub-account/website was impacted.)
Other than the above, there is no other access to modify files. No panel, ssh, or user ftp access.
On a potentially related note, I have seen, that somehow depending on the security/file permissions of a WordPress directory and its files, WP complains about not having the correct permissions to upload plugins or make other changes and to fix the issue, instead asks for valid FTP credentials.
And indeed, in wp-config.php, I see FTP account defined, I’m almost certain was due to this same issue in the past:
define('FTP_USER', 'PARENTaccount@myparent.com');
define('FTP_HOST', 'localhost');
define('FTP_SSL', false);
define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');
Logically, this would almost certainly be an issue because, it would seem when FTP access is used, in whatever situation, the parent account would be used instead of the sub-account.
I wouldn’t think this would result in change of file ownership, even when modifying, but if for any reason, a file is created or removed and readded, then the new owner of those files would obviously be the parent’s account.