cPanel in it’s wisdom are updating htaccess files changing the package type, in our experience “ea-php52” package to “ea-php56”.

cpanel forums confirms the modification is part of a regular update to users code.

In our case, all it did was break our website causing 500 server errors.

Yes, we can access cpanel/file manager/public_html/.htaccess then change the package back.. but, it means the website has been down until these changes are made.

Furious cpanel users have expressed their frustration: cPanel alters htaccess files

The issue is described here: cpanel.net

Cpanel have responded here with benny@cpanel.net saying: To clarify for everyone: any edits that are actually causing websites to break need to be reported to our support team, so that we can accomadate and account for them. The edits to the .htaccess files should *never* take a website offline, and if they are then it absolutely IS a bug.

.htaccess FIX

Deny cPanel access to .htaccess

Prevent Easyapache . htaccess File Modification

• Login to WHM.
• Navigate to “Server Configuration”.
• Go to “Tweak settings”.
• Select the option “System”.
• Set “Depth to recurse for . htaccess checks” to 0.
• Click the button ‘Save’.

# php — BEGIN cPanel-generated handler, do not edit
# Set the “ea-php52” package as the default “PHP” programming language.
<IfModule mime_module>
AddHandler application/x-httpd-ea-php52 .php .php5 .phtml
</IfModule>
# php — END cPanel-generated handler, do not edit

UPDATE

Unfortunately, neither of the two methods worked for us.  The file continues to be updated by cpanel from time to time.  We only become aware of it when accessing the website (500 server error).

We’ve written to cpanel and requested assistance.