Apache Friends Support Forum

Hello!

I've got a problem with accessing a php page.

My browser will load a page such as 'localhost/index.php

However it will not load a page such as 'localhost/register.php?x=austintest1%2540localhost&y=2866cbd29d8e0c66386cae06baa82310' and instead shows the following error:

Access forbidden!
You don't have permission to access the requested object. It is either read-protected or not readable by the server.
If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster.

Error 403
localhost
06/09/2011 01:18:18
Apache/2.2.17 (Win32) mod_ssl/2.2.17 OpenSSL/0.9.8o PHP/5.3.4 mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.10.1

The error recorded in the error.log file is: '[error] [client 127.0.0.1] (20025)The given path contained wildcard characters: access to /greatgrades/htdocs/activate.php?x=austintest1%40localhost&y=2866cbd29d8e0c66386cae06baa82310 failed'

I am running XAMPP 1.7.4

After searching the forum, I think the problem may be that Apache lacks sufficient read access. However I'm not certain, and if it is this, I don't know how to alter the read access.

So can somebody please help me?!
Thanks,
Austin

The given path contained wildcard characters

Hi Jon, thanks, but aren't wildcard characters ok in an url? A question mark is allowed and %2540 for @ it ok too isn't it? Sorry if I'm being really stupid, but I'm on a very steep learning curve!

Its most likely a problem with the parsing routine in whatever it is you are running. The command line has to be deconstructed by the application (the 'argument pass' where you tell the script/app 'what to do now'). That is usually unique to an application. It could be an un-escaped character, or simply an error. You need to look at the logic in the application. IF its a Unix/Linux born application and not thought through to be cross platform, those kind of errors are common. After a bit of thinking (read below), I'm guessing its an encoding error due to UTF-8(unicode) vs. a Latin ISO set. The function is probably a decodeURI of some type. This could be due to the underlying database setup or the application. This is way out of scope for what we do here, but I was intrigued.

What URL's are possibly permissible under different protocols probably isn't the issue.

this is what to look in, as that is what returned the error -> register.php

this may or may not be the same issue -

/greatgrades/htdocs/activate.php?x=austintest1%40localhost&y=2866cbd29d8e0c66386cae06baa82310 failed'

Without knowing the applications directory tree its really hard to say what should be happening.
generally, the browser won't be able to access URL's that aren't in the the document root's folder tree without some changes.

not readable by the server.

PHP code isn't an executable, its a script the 'user' needs to have permissions to.

Note that the two errors contain these very close strings - Its possible they are the root of your errors. Whatever you are running, you should probably look at its configuration options. (just a guess) I think the 'parser' routine was looking for an 'austintest1@localhost' (local account)string - pretty sure that's the deal if that is the 'email address' you chose to work with.
%2540localhost.
%40localhost.

that is two different encodings of the '@' and then the unescaped '%' symbol.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5506 ... l-encoding
http://www.blooberry.com/indexdot/html/ ... coding.htm
http://www.coderanch.com/t/527365/socke ... L-encoding

I'm saying you may have two issues - 1st a decoding issue. 2nd. you may also have a folders permissions OR location issue. Solve#1 and maybe #2 goes away - #2 looks like both an encoding issue and a permissions issue.

You need to contact the author.

Good Luck

WORTH READING - ABOUT UTF-8
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html

Thanks for all the info Jon, really appreciate it. I'm just going through it all now. Will let you know the outcome!

Austin