class-wp-rest-taxonomies-controller.php returns 500 status

[nooozeguy]

Google Search Console is reporting a search error that the class-wp-rest-taxonomies-controller.php file is returning a 500 status.
To test this, I cloned the live site, removed all plugins and activated the Twenty Seventeen theme.
I then navigated to ​https://test.[domain].com/test/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-taxonomies-controller.php and saw that the url returns a 500 status in a clean version of Google Chrome.
I also reviewed the file and folder permissions with the Web host to answer the question of whether this file should be accessible to the Googlebot. The file is set to 644 and the folder is set to 755.
Here is a screenshot of the file url in Google Chrome: ​https://monosnap.com/file/AwySRiHygLMIxHqIWNLLrr0BKWuL7i.

[nooozeguy]

Screenshot from Google Chrome of 500 status

[danieltj]

Hi @nooozeguy, welcome to Trac!

This doesn't seem like a bug to me because files inside wp-includes are not designed to be accessed directly. If you want to use the REST API, you should send requests to the wp-json endpoint instead, rather than direct to the PHP files inside the includes folder. The reason why it's appearing in Google Search Console is probably due to someone or something trying to access in the wrong circumstances.

You can find out more information about the API and available endpoints in the ​handbook.