Express.js/Nginx hidden rewrite rule? - php

Question

So I am running an Express.js/Passport.js web server with Nginx on CentOS 7.
Here's the problem: I cannot display any endpoint that starts with w. Trying to do so results in a Cannot GET /wiki/Main_Page message. However, changing that same route from e.g. /welcome to /selcome works just fine.
Most likely culprit:
I installed Mediawiki but removed it not long after. IIRC there was some kind of setting that prettied up URLs that starting with /w after the domain. So I'm guessing a rewrite rule is persisting... just have no idea where.
Here are my config files:
/srv/node/example.com/app/routes/auth.js
module.exports = function(app, passport) {
//Changing the URLs below from welcome to selcome works fine
app.get('/activate', passport.authenticate('user-activate-account', {
successRedirect: '/welcome',
failureRedirect: '/404',
failureFlash: true
}));
...
app.get('/welcome', isLoggedIn, function(req, res) {
res.render('inside', {
page_title: 'Welcome!',
inc_style: true,
style_sheet: 'style/dashboard.css',
portal: function() {
return 'welcome';
}
});
});
};
/etc/nginx.conf
user nginx nginx;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log info; # [ debug | info | notice | warn | error | crit ]
events {
worker_connections 1024;
}
http {
include mime.types;
include /etc/nginx/sites_enabled/.conf; //Really *.conf but more readable this way
include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf;
server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
# Compression - requires gzip and gzip static modules.
gzip on;
gzip_static on;
gzip_vary on;
gzip_http_version 1.1;
gzip_min_length 700;
# Compression levels over 6 do not give an appreciable improvement
# in compression ratio, but take more resources.
gzip_comp_level 6;
# IE 6 and lower do not support gzip with Vary correctly.
gzip_disable "msie6";
# Before nginx 0.7.63:
#gzip_disable "MSIE [1-6]\.";
# Redirect http traffic to https
server {
listen 80 default_server;
server_name _;
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}
# Catch-all server for requests to invalid hosts.
# Also catches vulnerability scanners probing IP addresses.
server {
listen 443 ssl;
server_name bogus;
root /var/empty;
return 444;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
}
}
# If running php as fastcgi, specify php upstream.
upstream php {
server unix:/var/run/php7.2-fpm.socket;
}
}
/etc/nginx/sites_available/example.com.conf
#sub.example.com
server {
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
listen 443 ssl;
server_name sub.example.com;
access_log /var/log/nginx/sub.example.com.access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/sub.example.com.error.log;
location /something\.js {
alias /var/www/html/example.com/sub.example.com/design/;
location ~* \.(gif|jpe?g|png|svg|webm)$ {
try_files $uri =404;
expires 30d;
}
}
location / {
proxy_pass http://localhost:3847;
proxy_http_version 1.1;
proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
}
}
So far I have
Purged Nginx config files, and every config file in the include tree, of any legacy rules.
Cleared Nginx cache
My node.js project folder does not even contain the string wiki anywhere except for NPM links in the node_modules folder.
All the PHP files in /etc, /etc/php.d, /etc/php-fpm.d do not contain the string wiki
Deleted mediawiki folder
Restarted nginx
Restarted php-fpm
Restarted entire machine
I'm genuinely baffled at where this problem could be. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Turns out it was the browser. Despite clearing history multiple times and using incognito mode, nothing changed. But using another browser worked flawlessly. I feel like an idiot, but at least I can finally put this rage-inducing mystery behind me.
Was using: Firefox (I guess private mode isn't enough)
Chrome showed it was a browser error.