I have a few blogs under my installation. Today a friend let me know he couldn't post properly on his site. He could read comments and old entries... but whenever he tried to post something new, he would get a 403 error as soon as clicked "Submit".
This honestly came out of nowhere and I have no idea what was causing it. Nothing has been added or removed from the sites. At first I thought it was just him, but it turns out that I too am having the same problems. Anything beyond 4 paragraphs seems to be doing this.
It's so similar to the old random 500 error problem that I wonder if something similar is to blame such as a newly uploaded CPanel update or what-have-you.
I'm on Surpass Hosting, if that matters. Any help would be appreciated.
Full Version: Sudden 403 Errors For Mt.cgi?
I played around with my friend's entry for awhile and managed to figure something out... it makes no sense to me.
Essentially, if either (or both) of these two sentences are present in the entry, you get a 403 error: "Then go curl up in front of a fireplace and read your heart out! If you don't have a fireplace (you wuss), then set something on fire and curl up in front of that."
At first I thought that Movable Type was getting upset over the length, but if you replace those two sentences with anything else, it submits fine. I tried posting these two sentences in a comment and even that gives a 403 error. Anything else you post as comment, long or not, works.
I just find this incredibly bizarre. Since it seems to be narrowed down, I'm not really freaking out about it or anything... but why in the world would this happen? Or is it something else I'm not noticing?
Essentially, if either (or both) of these two sentences are present in the entry, you get a 403 error: "Then go curl up in front of a fireplace and read your heart out! If you don't have a fireplace (you wuss), then set something on fire and curl up in front of that."
At first I thought that Movable Type was getting upset over the length, but if you replace those two sentences with anything else, it submits fine. I tried posting these two sentences in a comment and even that gives a 403 error. Anything else you post as comment, long or not, works.
I just find this incredibly bizarre. Since it seems to be narrowed down, I'm not really freaking out about it or anything... but why in the world would this happen? Or is it something else I'm not noticing?
403 is an HTTP Forbidden error, which is not something characteristically generated by an MT problem. I would suspect your host provider may be doing some kind of POST word filtering on form submissions. The webserver error log will probably have more information on what's going on.
All right, thanks. I suppose I will just have to wait for my host to respond to my ticket. Thanks.
I was running into very strange 403 Forbidden errors when posting myself. I did dozens of tests and came to this conclusion. When I create a post with the text "perl" (without quotes) anywhere in the body of the post, I get a 403 error.
In one post I had written the word "properly" and got the error. I started trimming text to see if it was a length issue, but then I realized that as I trimmed sometimes it went through and sometimes not, but length was not an issue.
I finally trimmed all the text down to the word "properly" and then further down to "perl" so for me if I open a brand new post and type only the word "perl" in the body, I get a 403.
It seems MovableType is trying to execute or compile that text. Very odd and I can't believe this bug made it through.
Maybe it only effects certain server configs though, I have no idea. Hope this helps someone else!
In one post I had written the word "properly" and got the error. I started trimming text to see if it was a length issue, but then I realized that as I trimmed sometimes it went through and sometimes not, but length was not an issue.
I finally trimmed all the text down to the word "properly" and then further down to "perl" so for me if I open a brand new post and type only the word "perl" in the body, I get a 403.
It seems MovableType is trying to execute or compile that text. Very odd and I can't believe this bug made it through.
Maybe it only effects certain server configs though, I have no idea. Hope this helps someone else!
QUOTE (timberfish @ Dec 5 2005, 09:12 PM)
I was running into very strange 403 Forbidden errors when posting myself. I did dozens of tests and came to this conclusion. When I create a post with the text "perl" (without quotes) anywhere in the body of the post, I get a 403 error.
In one post I had written the word "properly" and got the error. I started trimming text to see if it was a length issue, but then I realized that as I trimmed sometimes it went through and sometimes not, but length was not an issue.
I finally trimmed all the text down to the word "properly" and then further down to "perl" so for me if I open a brand new post and type only the word "perl" in the body, I get a 403.
It seems MovableType is trying to execute or compile that text. Very odd and I can't believe this bug made it through.
Maybe it only effects certain server configs though, I have no idea. Hope this helps someone else!
In one post I had written the word "properly" and got the error. I started trimming text to see if it was a length issue, but then I realized that as I trimmed sometimes it went through and sometimes not, but length was not an issue.
I finally trimmed all the text down to the word "properly" and then further down to "perl" so for me if I open a brand new post and type only the word "perl" in the body, I get a 403.
It seems MovableType is trying to execute or compile that text. Very odd and I can't believe this bug made it through.
Maybe it only effects certain server configs though, I have no idea. Hope this helps someone else!
Hi, What file extension do you have on your pages? I have html and was able to create a post with "perl" in the body and can access the page aok.
QUOTE
I finally trimmed all the text down to the word "properly" and then further down to "perl" so for me if I open a brand new post and type only the word "perl" in the body, I get a 403.
It seems MovableType is trying to execute or compile that text. Very odd and I can't believe this bug made it through.
Maybe it only effects certain server configs though, I have no idea. Hope this helps someone else!
It seems MovableType is trying to execute or compile that text. Very odd and I can't believe this bug made it through.
Maybe it only effects certain server configs though, I have no idea. Hope this helps someone else!
403 would not be an error generated by something MT did. 403 is generated by the webserver in response to something it sees in the HTTP request or by configuration directive, making the webserver deny the request.
Check to see if your ISP isn't implementing some form of filtering on HTTP requests. This is the most likely source of the problem.
I'm sure it's not my ISP doing this as I can enter the term perl into these text boxes and submit with no issue at all. I suppose my hosting company could be doing something strange in that arena though. I'll submit a request to them and let you know how it goes.
Oh, by the way. To make matters more odd and interesting, I am also not able to post anything there with the word "curl" in the text area without getting the same error. This is just bizarre.
Oh, by the way. To make matters more odd and interesting, I am also not able to post anything there with the word "curl" in the text area without getting the same error. This is just bizarre.
QUOTE (lisa @ Dec 6 2005, 07:57 AM)
Hi, What file extension do you have on your pages? I have html and was able to create a post with "perl" in the body and can access the page aok.
I'm using .htm as my file extension. How would that contribute to the error I'm talking about though?
okay, found the reason for my weird issue - turns out the hosting company of my servers had some strange filter in place effecting any text field on any of my servers. very strange, but it's been removed now and all is well. thank you for your help!
I've found out more as well. There's a mod security filter that looks for a defined listed of reserved words and "complains" when it finds them. One person's server had "CD" in the list so she couldn't post reviews of CDs without some fancy HTML tricks.
I'm glad you've gotten this resolved though!
I'm glad you've gotten this resolved though!
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