php 5.3 via .htaccess, file keeps reverting

[eca]

Hi all, our wordpress site (hosted at Sonic) is showing the following error:

"Your server is running PHP version 4.4.9 but WordPress 4.0.10 requires at least 5.2.4."

I tried forcing php 5.3 via .htaccess by adding

Action php-cgi /cgi-bin/php53
AddHandler php-cgi .php

to the top of the file. When I tried to modify the file initially, it wouldn't let me upload it (access denied error). I changed the file permissions and was able to upload the file and the site came back up temporarily, but within 10 seconds the server reverts to the old .htaccess file and the site goes down again.

This seems incredibly strange, any idea what's going on here?

[miken]

Where did you add that in the .htaccess file? I've seen a similar issue when anything is put between the BEGIN Wordpress and END Wordpress. If you didn't originally, I'd try adding it to the very top of the file, preceding everything else.

[joemuller]

Do you have a security plugin of some kind? I know some of them "protect" the .htaccess file, and due to the way Wordpress works, this "check" can potentially happen every time you load the page.