[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #41211: When the /category/category-name portion is repeated in the URL, it serves content instead of 404

[WordPress Trac]

#41211: When the /category/category-name portion is repeated in the URL, it serves
content instead of 404
---------------------------+------------------------------
 Reporter:  sjwright1986   |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)   |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal         |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Rewrite Rules  |     Version:  4.8
 Severity:  normal         |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  needs-patch    |     Focuses:
---------------------------+------------------------------
Changes (by bradleyt):

 * keywords:   => needs-patch


Comment:

 I can reproduce this. It's worth noting that this has SEO implications as
 WordPress does not output canonical meta tags on categories by default
 (`rel_canonical` only runs on singular posts and pages).

 Digging deeper it seems that any hierarchical categories are affected
 (including custom taxonomies registered with `register_taxonomy()`). Non-
 heirachical taxonomies, such as tags, do not seem to be affected.

 In `class-wp-query.php` I've found the following code:


 {{{
 if ( ! empty( $t->rewrite['hierarchical'] ) ) {
     $q[ $t->query_var ] = wp_basename( $q[ $t->query_var ] );
 }
 }}}

 I'm not 100% sure, but it looks like WordPress may be extracting the
 taxonomy type from the URL, extracting the last URL section, and then
 ignoring everything in between.

 For pages, this situation is avoided by checking for `get_page_by_path` in
 `parse_request` in `class-wp.php`. Heirachical taxonomies could be checked
 in the same way. Alternatively, the `handle_404` method in `class-wp.php`
 could be extended to check the URL sections match the found taxonomies
 parent.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/41211#comment:1>
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