Wordpress or Apache or Nginx matching partial URL to full URI

I have a weird issue where either Nginx or Apache (I can't tell which - but I'm 90% sure it's Apache - Nginx is reverse proxying) is matching a partial URL to a full, random URL.

For example: https://example.com/php

Is being rewritten/redirected to: https://example.com/php-full-article-url

But as far as I'm aware, I don't have anything in my config's that would result in this behaviour!

Nginx conf:

server { server_name example.com; root /var/www/html/examplecom/; index index.php index.html index.htm; set $skip_cache 0; set $skip_reason ""; proxy_cache_key $scheme$host$request_uri; if ($http_cookie ~* "comment_author_|wordpress_(?!test_cookie)|wp-postpass_" ) { set $skip_cache 1; set $skip_reason Cookie; } if ($request_uri ~* "/wp-admin/|/xmlrpc.php|wp-.*.php|/feed/|sitemap(_index)?.xml") { set $skip_cache 1; set $skip_reason URI; } add_header Cache-BYPASS-Reason $skip_reason; location / { try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args; proxy_buffering off; proxy_cache edge-cache; proxy_cache_revalidate on; proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout invalid_header updating http_500 http_502 http_503 http_504; proxy_cache_bypass $skip_cache; proxy_no_cache $skip_cache; proxy_cache_valid 200 301 302 500m; proxy_cache_valid 404 1m; add_header X-Cache-Status $upstream_cache_status; #add_header X-Handled-By $proxy_host; add_header Cache-BYPASS-Reason $skip_reason; } location ~ \.php$ { proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080$request_uri; add_header Front-End-Https on; proxy_redirect off; proxy_buffering off; proxy_cache edge-cache; proxy_cache_revalidate on; proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout invalid_header updating http_500 http_502 http_503 http_504; proxy_cache_bypass $skip_cache; proxy_no_cache $skip_cache; proxy_cache_valid 200 301 302 500m; proxy_cache_valid 404 1m; add_header X-Cache-Status $upstream_cache_status; #add_header X-Handled-By $proxy_host; add_header Cache-BYPASS-Reason $skip_reason; } location ~ /\.ht { deny all; } listen 443 ssl http2; # managed by Certbot #listen [::]:443 ssl http2 ipv6only=off; ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/example.com/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot #include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot #ssl_ciphers EECDH+CHACHA20:EECDH+AES128:RSA+AES128:EECDH+AES256:RSA+AES256:EECDH+3DES:RSA+3DES:!MD5; ssl_ciphers TLS13-CHACHA20-POLY1305-SHA256:TLS13-AES-256-GCM-SHA384:TLS13-AES-128-GCM-SHA256:EECDH+AESGCM:EDH+AESGCM:AES256+EECDH:AES256+EDH:EECDH+CHACHA20:EECDH+AES128:RSA+AES128:EECDH+AES256:RSA+AES256:EECDH+3DES:RSA+3DES:!MD5; ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot location = /favicon.ico { log_not_found off; access_log off; } location = /robots.txt { log_not_found off; access_log off; allow all; } location ~* .(css|gif|ico|jpeg|jpg|js|png)$ { expires max; log_not_found off; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; proxy_redirect off; proxy_buffering off; proxy_cache edge-cache; proxy_cache_revalidate on; proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout invalid_header updating http_500 http_502 http_503 http_504; proxy_cache_bypass $skip_cache; proxy_no_cache $skip_cache; proxy_cache_valid 200 301 302 500m; proxy_cache_valid 404 1m; add_header X-Cache-Status $upstream_cache_status; add_header Cache-BYPASS-Reason $skip_reason; proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080$request_uri; } } server { if ($host = example.com) { return 301 https://$host$request_uri; } # managed by Certbot if ($host = www.example.com) { return 301 https://example.com$request_uri; } if ($host = dev.example.com) { return 301 https://example.com$request_uri; } # managed by Certbot listen 80; server_name example.com; return 404; # managed by Certbot } 

Apache conf:

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:8080> #ServerName example.com ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www/html/examplecom/ #LogLevel info ssl:warn ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf Header unset ETag FileETag None CacheQuickHandler off #CacheRoot /var/cache/apache2/mod_cache_disk #CacheEnable disk / #CacheDirLevels 2 #CacheDirLength 1 #CacheMaxFileSize 2000000 #CacheIgnoreNoLastMod On #CacheDefaultExpire 7200 #CacheIgnoreCacheControl On #CacheLastModifiedFactor 0.5 CacheIgnoreHeaders Set-Cookie Cookie #CacheHeader on #CacheLock on CacheDisable /wp-admin CacheDisable /wp-login.php CacheDisable /wp-cron.php #SetOutputFilter CACHE <FilesMatch \.php$> SetHandler "proxy:unix:/var/run/php/php7.2-fpm.sock|fcgi://localhost/" </FilesMatch> </VirtualHost> 

Wordpress .htaccess:

# BEGIN W3TC CDN <IfModule mod_headers.c> Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*" </IfModule> # END W3TC CDN # BEGIN W3TC Browser Cache <IfModule mod_mime.c> AddType text/css .css AddType text/x-component .htc AddType application/x-javascript .js AddType application/javascript .js2 AddType text/javascript .js3 AddType text/x-js .js4 AddType text/html .html .htm AddType text/richtext .rtf .rtx AddType image/svg+xml .svg AddType text/plain .txt AddType text/xsd .xsd AddType text/xsl .xsl AddType text/xml .xml AddType video/asf .asf .asx .wax .wmv .wmx AddType video/avi .avi AddType image/bmp .bmp AddType application/java .class AddType video/divx .divx AddType application/msword .doc .docx AddType application/vnd.ms-fontobject .eot AddType application/x-msdownload .exe AddType image/gif .gif AddType application/x-gzip .gz .gzip AddType image/x-icon .ico AddType image/jpeg .jpg .jpeg .jpe AddType image/webp .webp AddType application/json .json AddType application/vnd.ms-access .mdb AddType audio/midi .mid .midi AddType video/quicktime .mov .qt AddType audio/mpeg .mp3 .m4a AddType video/mp4 .mp4 .m4v AddType video/mpeg .mpeg .mpg .mpe AddType video/webm .webm AddType application/vnd.ms-project .mpp AddType application/x-font-otf .otf AddType application/vnd.ms-opentype ._otf AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.database .odb AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.chart .odc AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula .odf AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics .odg AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation .odp AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet .ods AddType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text .odt AddType audio/ogg .ogg AddType application/pdf .pdf AddType image/png .png AddType application/vnd.ms-powerpoint .pot .pps .ppt .pptx AddType audio/x-realaudio .ra .ram AddType image/svg+xml .svg .svgz AddType application/x-shockwave-flash .swf AddType application/x-tar .tar AddType image/tiff .tif .tiff AddType application/x-font-ttf .ttf .ttc AddType application/vnd.ms-opentype ._ttf AddType audio/wav .wav AddType audio/wma .wma AddType application/vnd.ms-write .wri AddType application/font-woff .woff AddType application/font-woff2 .woff2 AddType application/vnd.ms-excel .xla .xls .xlsx .xlt .xlw AddType application/zip .zip </IfModule> <IfModule mod_expires.c> ExpiresActive On ExpiresByType text/css A31536000 ExpiresByType text/x-component A31536000 ExpiresByType application/x-javascript A31536000 ExpiresByType application/javascript A31536000 ExpiresByType text/javascript A31536000 ExpiresByType text/x-js A31536000 ExpiresByType text/html A3600 ExpiresByType text/richtext A3600 ExpiresByType image/svg+xml A3600 ExpiresByType text/plain A3600 ExpiresByType text/xsd A3600 ExpiresByType text/xsl A3600 ExpiresByType text/xml A3600 ExpiresByType video/asf A31536000 ExpiresByType video/avi A31536000 ExpiresByType image/bmp A31536000 ExpiresByType application/java A31536000 ExpiresByType video/divx A31536000 ExpiresByType application/msword A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-fontobject A31536000 ExpiresByType application/x-msdownload A31536000 ExpiresByType image/gif A31536000 ExpiresByType application/x-gzip A31536000 ExpiresByType image/x-icon A31536000 ExpiresByType image/jpeg A31536000 ExpiresByType image/webp A31536000 ExpiresByType application/json A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-access A31536000 ExpiresByType audio/midi A31536000 ExpiresByType video/quicktime A31536000 ExpiresByType audio/mpeg A31536000 ExpiresByType video/mp4 A31536000 ExpiresByType video/mpeg A31536000 ExpiresByType video/webm A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-project A31536000 ExpiresByType application/x-font-otf A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-opentype A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.database A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.chart A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text A31536000 ExpiresByType audio/ogg A31536000 ExpiresByType application/pdf A31536000 ExpiresByType image/png A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-powerpoint A31536000 ExpiresByType audio/x-realaudio A31536000 ExpiresByType image/svg+xml A31536000 ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash A31536000 ExpiresByType application/x-tar A31536000 ExpiresByType image/tiff A31536000 ExpiresByType application/x-font-ttf A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-opentype A31536000 ExpiresByType audio/wav A31536000 ExpiresByType audio/wma A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-write A31536000 ExpiresByType application/font-woff A31536000 ExpiresByType application/font-woff2 A31536000 ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-excel A31536000 ExpiresByType application/zip A31536000 </IfModule> <IfModule mod_brotli.c> <IfModule mod_filter.c> AddOutputFilterByType BROTLI_COMPRESS text/css text/x-component application/x-javascript application/javascript text/javascript text/x-js text/html text/richtext image/svg+xml text/plain text/xsd text/xsl text/xml image/bmp application/java application/msword application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/x-msdownload image/x-icon image/webp application/json application/vnd.ms-access video/webm application/vnd.ms-project application/x-font-otf application/vnd.ms-opentype application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.database application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.chart application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text audio/ogg application/pdf application/vnd.ms-powerpoint image/svg+xml application/x-shockwave-flash image/tiff application/x-font-ttf application/vnd.ms-opentype audio/wav application/vnd.ms-write application/font-woff application/font-woff2 application/vnd.ms-excel <IfModule mod_mime.c> # BROTLI_COMPRESS by extension AddOutputFilter BROTLI_COMPRESS js css htm html xml </IfModule> </IfModule> </IfModule> <IfModule mod_deflate.c> <IfModule mod_filter.c> AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css text/x-component application/x-javascript application/javascript text/javascript text/x-js text/html text/richtext image/svg+xml text/plain text/xsd text/xsl text/xml image/bmp application/java application/msword application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/x-msdownload image/x-icon image/webp application/json application/vnd.ms-access video/webm application/vnd.ms-project application/x-font-otf application/vnd.ms-opentype application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.database application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.chart application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.formula application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.graphics application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text audio/ogg application/pdf application/vnd.ms-powerpoint image/svg+xml application/x-shockwave-flash image/tiff application/x-font-ttf application/vnd.ms-opentype audio/wav application/vnd.ms-write application/font-woff application/font-woff2 application/vnd.ms-excel <IfModule mod_mime.c> # DEFLATE by extension AddOutputFilter DEFLATE js css htm html xml </IfModule> </IfModule> </IfModule> <FilesMatch "\.(css|htc|less|js|js2|js3|js4|CSS|HTC|LESS|JS|JS2|JS3|JS4)$"> FileETag MTime Size <IfModule mod_headers.c> Header unset Set-Cookie </IfModule> </FilesMatch> <FilesMatch "\.(html|htm|rtf|rtx|svg|txt|xsd|xsl|xml|HTML|HTM|RTF|RTX|SVG|TXT|XSD|XSL|XML)$"> FileETag MTime Size <IfModule mod_headers.c> Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary </IfModule> </FilesMatch> <FilesMatch "\.(asf|asx|wax|wmv|wmx|avi|bmp|class|divx|doc|docx|eot|exe|gif|gz|gzip|ico|jpg|jpeg|jpe|webp|json|mdb|mid|midi|mov|qt|mp3|m4a|mp4|m4v|mpeg|mpg|mpe|webm|mpp|otf|_otf|odb|odc|odf|odg|odp|ods|odt|ogg|pdf|png|pot|pps|ppt|pptx|ra|ram|svg|svgz|swf|tar|tif|tiff|ttf|ttc|_ttf|wav|wma|wri|woff|woff2|xla|xls|xlsx|xlt|xlw|zip|ASF|ASX|WAX|WMV|WMX|AVI|BMP|CLASS|DIVX|DOC|DOCX|EOT|EXE|GIF|GZ|GZIP|ICO|JPG|JPEG|JPE|WEBP|JSON|MDB|MID|MIDI|MOV|QT|MP3|M4A|MP4|M4V|MPEG|MPG|MPE|WEBM|MPP|OTF|_OTF|ODB|ODC|ODF|ODG|ODP|ODS|ODT|OGG|PDF|PNG|POT|PPS|PPT|PPTX|RA|RAM|SVG|SVGZ|SWF|TAR|TIF|TIFF|TTF|TTC|_TTF|WAV|WMA|WRI|WOFF|WOFF2|XLA|XLS|XLSX|XLT|XLW|ZIP)$"> FileETag MTime Size <IfModule mod_headers.c> Header unset Set-Cookie </IfModule> </FilesMatch> <FilesMatch "\.(bmp|class|doc|docx|eot|exe|ico|webp|json|mdb|webm|mpp|otf|_otf|odb|odc|odf|odg|odp|ods|odt|ogg|pdf|pot|pps|ppt|pptx|svg|svgz|swf|tif|tiff|ttf|ttc|_ttf|wav|wri|woff|woff2|xla|xls|xlsx|xlt|xlw|BMP|CLASS|DOC|DOCX|EOT|EXE|ICO|WEBP|JSON|MDB|WEBM|MPP|OTF|_OTF|ODB|ODC|ODF|ODG|ODP|ODS|ODT|OGG|PDF|POT|PPS|PPT|PPTX|SVG|SVGZ|SWF|TIF|TIFF|TTF|TTC|_TTF|WAV|WRI|WOFF|WOFF2|XLA|XLS|XLSX|XLT|XLW)$"> <IfModule mod_headers.c> Header unset Last-Modified </IfModule> </FilesMatch> <IfModule mod_headers.c> Header set Referrer-Policy "no-referrer-when-downgrade" </IfModule> # END W3TC Browser Cache # BEGIN W3TC Page Cache core <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteCond %{HTTPS} =on RewriteRule .* - [E=W3TC_SSL:_ssl] RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} =443 RewriteRule .* - [E=W3TC_SSL:_ssl] RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} =https [NC] RewriteRule .* - [E=W3TC_SSL:_ssl] RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Encoding} br RewriteRule .* - [E=W3TC_ENC:_br] RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} w3tc_preview [NC] RewriteRule .* - [E=W3TC_PREVIEW:_preview] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !=POST RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ="" RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} \/$ RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !(comment_author|wp\-postpass|w3tc_logged_out|wordpress_logged_in|wptouch_switch_toggle) [NC] RewriteCond "%{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/wp-content/cache/page_enhanced/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}/_index%{ENV:W3TC_SSL}%{ENV:W3TC_PREVIEW}.html%{ENV:W3TC_ENC}" -f RewriteRule .* "/wp-content/cache/page_enhanced/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}/_index%{ENV:W3TC_SSL}%{ENV:W3TC_PREVIEW}.html%{ENV:W3TC_ENC}" [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} !=POST RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ="" RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} \/$ RewriteCond %{HTTP_COOKIE} !(comment_author|wp\-postpass|w3tc_logged_out|wordpress_logged_in|wptouch_switch_toggle) [NC] RewriteCond "%{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/wp-content/cache/page_enhanced/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}/_index%{ENV:W3TC_SSL}%{ENV:W3TC_PREVIEW}.xml%{ENV:W3TC_ENC}" -f RewriteRule .* "/wp-content/cache/page_enhanced/%{HTTP_HOST}/%{REQUEST_URI}/_index%{ENV:W3TC_SSL}%{ENV:W3TC_PREVIEW}.xml%{ENV:W3TC_ENC}" [L] </IfModule> # END W3TC Page Cache core # BEGIN WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] </IfModule> # END WordPress 

Any help here would be GREATLY appreciated. https://example.com/php should not be rewriting to https://example.com/php-full-article-url - because it's not a legitimate match/binding/whatever it's called.

I have just checked my Apache access logs: 127.0.0.1 - - [21/Feb/2019:14:42:14 +0000] "GET /php HTTP/1.0" 301 - so it is doing a 301 redirect within Apache!!! I just don't know why

I've cleared Nginx caching, restarted both Apache and Nginx (and PHP for good measure).

Happy to give some real world example url's if that helps? I have a set of posts that all start /review- however if I just visit /review (expecting to get a 404 error - which is exactly correct!), it seems to just pick a random post and redirects/rewrites to serve that up instead (200 OK!)

Note: Originally asked on SO (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54809631/) but got no responses - I feel it's probably more appropriate here