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   A character string that causes server error
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   Author  Topic: A character string that causes server error  (Read 2462 times)
fiziwig
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A character string that causes server error  
« on: Jun 13th, 2007, 6:15pm »
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The character string consisting of the four characters:
double quote
percent sign
r (lower case)
double quote
 
anywhere in the submitted text causes the server to reply with the message:
 
Bad Request
 
Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Apache/2.0.59 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.0.59 OpenSSL/0.9.8e Server at www.ocf.berkeley.edu Port 80
 
when the "Post" button is clicked.
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #1 on: Jun 14th, 2007, 1:56am »
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Just the percent sign is enough to cause a problem at the moment.
 
And when I try to delete old PMs or posts, I get  
Quote:
Method Not Implemented
 
GET to /~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi not supported.
Apache/2.0.59 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.0.59 OpenSSL/0.9.8e Server at www.ocf.berkeley.edu Port 80
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #2 on: Jun 14th, 2007, 3:32am »
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%20 works.
00 instead of 20 doesn't.
 
As I said, I suspect there is an URLDecode going on, and a °/o without a valid code either creates an exception or is refused as suspect.
 
There must be a new firewall somewhere.
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #3 on: Jun 21st, 2007, 9:58am »
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The problem that caused the error when trying to delete posts has been fixed, so you can recommence hiding your mistakes Wink
 
They're still searching for the percent-sign problem though.
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #4 on: Jun 21st, 2007, 1:44pm »
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And now we can also post % to our hearts content again.
 
[e]actually, there's still a few strings beginning with % that don't work (like with 00), but I doubt they'll be a problem.[/e]
« Last Edit: Jun 21st, 2007, 2:12pm by towr » IP Logged

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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #5 on: Jun 22nd, 2007, 5:19am »
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%
 
wow!
 
I've never appreciated the simple pleasure of posting a % sign before.
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #6 on: Jun 22nd, 2007, 4:34pm »
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on Jun 22nd, 2007, 5:19am, Grimbal wrote:
%
 
wow!
 
I've never appreciated the simple pleasure of posting a % sign before.

 
Did you anticipate this appreciation?
 
 I would  have seen you try this flow
 
1) Put % in the typing box
2) Press "Post"
3) Be amazed that the post actually showed up
4) Press "Edit" to type in the appreciation of the simple pleasure you just experience
 
 Wink
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #7 on: Jul 4th, 2007, 3:00am »
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on Jun 22nd, 2007, 4:34pm, Sameer wrote:

 
Did you anticipate this appreciation?
 
 I would  have seen you try this flow
 
1) Put % in the typing box
2) Press "Post"
3) Be amazed that the post actually showed up
4) Press "Edit" to type in the appreciation of the simple pleasure you just experience
 
 Wink

 
Hehe, Sameer, nice observation on Grimby's ESP prowess   Grin
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #8 on: Jul 9th, 2007, 7:11pm »
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I get the famous  "Bad Request Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand " whenever I have the umlaut (the double dot) over a vowel like in naive (here I used only the single dot on the "i" just so it could post this).  
 
I suspect letters with french accents might also be affected but haven't tried.
« Last Edit: Jul 10th, 2007, 12:59am by denis » IP Logged
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #9 on: Jul 10th, 2007, 1:08am »
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ï?
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #10 on: Jul 10th, 2007, 1:42am »
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The post above is the UTF-8 encoding of i-with-2-dots. The A-tilde alone (and all french accentuated characters I tested) are rejected.
One explanation I see is that there is a firewall that filters incoming requests and rejects anything suspicious.  It assumes the post is UTF-8 and tries to decode it.  If it cannot do that, it rejects the request.
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #11 on: Jul 10th, 2007, 6:59am »
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Thanks for checking this Grimbal. I suspected as much.
 
My problem occurred when I was trying to put up my longest post (Framed!) so I thought it was the large size. But then I compared the size against the incredibly long riddle "Feux d'artifice" from Iceman. Mine had less text so I had to search out the problem by adding one paragraph at a time until I found the offending paragraph, then the offending sentence and then the offending word.
« Last Edit: Jul 10th, 2007, 7:03am by denis » IP Logged
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #12 on: Jul 12th, 2007, 12:10pm »
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Percent may be working; ampersand () seems to still cause errors.  This can be a problem when posting code...
 
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #13 on: Jul 12th, 2007, 12:28pm »
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I seem to have no problems posting &
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #14 on: Jul 12th, 2007, 12:47pm »
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((  seems to give a error, 501 "Method Not Implemented"  
So that's different in nature than the 400 "bad request" the % gave. I cant' seem to find a lot of combinations with & that give a problem though.
« Last Edit: Jul 12th, 2007, 12:48pm by towr » IP Logged

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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #15 on: Jul 12th, 2007, 12:48pm »
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Hmm, this post of mine was throwing a server error until I replaced the & with its image.  I'll try a few experiments.
 
Edit: the magic expression seems to be: /\([^0-9A-Za-z_]*&[^0-9A-Za-z_]*\(/ -- i.e. open-paren, optionally any string of entirely non-alphanumeric characters excluding underscore, ampersand, optionally any string of entirely non-alphanumeric characters excluding underscore, open-paren.  Very odd.
 
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« Last Edit: Jul 12th, 2007, 1:16pm by SMQ » IP Logged

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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #16 on: Jul 12th, 2007, 1:16pm »
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on Jul 12th, 2007, 12:47pm, towr wrote:
((  seems to give a error, 501 "Method Not Implemented"  
.

er. the message seems scary.. looks like somebody could execute something on the server by passing appropriate string..  Undecided
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #17 on: Jul 12th, 2007, 1:20pm »
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on Jul 12th, 2007, 1:16pm, Sameer wrote:

er. the message seems scary..

Nah, it means "method" in the HTML sense, e.g. GET, POST, PUT, etc.  It's just a very odd string to trigger a server error...
 
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #18 on: Jul 12th, 2007, 1:30pm »
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The question is, is it something I ought to bother William or the OCF staff with?
We could throw in the umlauts as well..  
I'm just always a bit hesitant when it's not really a huge problem. On the other hand, perhaps they'd rather know sooner than later.
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Re: A character string that causes server error  
« Reply #19 on: Jul 12th, 2007, 6:31pm »
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on Jul 12th, 2007, 1:30pm, towr wrote:
The question is, is it something I ought to bother William or the OCF staff with?

 
Of course we should tell them. It may be trivial, but I'm sure they'd want to know.
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