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Posted to users@tomcat.apache.org by Jacob Rhoden <ja...@rhoden.id.au> on 2007/10/25 02:12:57 UTC
Strante tomcat warning - WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding
failed. Parameter skipped.
Hi,
We are having an elusive issue on one of our production servers using
Tomcat 6.0.14, every few minutes we are getting a request that results
in the following exception:
Oct 25, 2007 12:04:23 AM org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters
processParameters
WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding failed. Parameter skipped.
java.io.CharConversionException: isHexDigit
at org.apache.tomcat.util.buf.UDecoder.convert(UDecoder.java:88)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.buf.UDecoder.convert(UDecoder.java:49)
at
org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.urlDecode(Parameters.java:412)
at
org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.processParameters(Parameters.java:394)
at
org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.processParameters(Parameters.java:346)
at
org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.parseParameters(Request.java:2470)
at
org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.getParameter(Request.java:1040)
at
org.apache.catalina.connector.RequestFacade.getParameter(RequestFacade.java:355)
......
Has anyone seen anything like this before, and know how to handle it? It
appears Firefox 2.0.0.8 browsers and IE browsers are both passing POST
commands that are resulting in this exception.
A quick search on google reveals a bunch of other people who dont know
what it is, and well, the source code that throws the exception.
Best Regards,
Jacob
--
_________________________________________________
Jacob Rhoden
Application Architect
Systems Development and Integration
University of Melbourne
Phone: +61 3 8344 2884
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Re: Strante tomcat warning - WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding failed. Parameter skipped.
Posted by Bill Barker <wb...@wilshire.com>.
Well, what it means is that Tomcat saw a '%' character in either the query
string or the POST body that wasn't followed by two two hex digits (0-9
union a-f). It is possible that it is simply a character encoding problem,
but there isn't enough info here to really say what the problem is.
"Jacob Rhoden" <ja...@rhoden.id.au> wrote in message
news:471FDF89.3080005@rhoden.id.au...
> Hi,
>
> We are having an elusive issue on one of our production servers using
> Tomcat 6.0.14, every few minutes we are getting a request that results in
> the following exception:
>
> Oct 25, 2007 12:04:23 AM org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters
> processParameters
> WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding failed. Parameter skipped.
> java.io.CharConversionException: isHexDigit
> at org.apache.tomcat.util.buf.UDecoder.convert(UDecoder.java:88)
> at org.apache.tomcat.util.buf.UDecoder.convert(UDecoder.java:49)
> at
> org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.urlDecode(Parameters.java:412)
> at
> org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.processParameters(Parameters.java:394)
> at
> org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.processParameters(Parameters.java:346)
> at
> org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.parseParameters(Request.java:2470)
> at
> org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.getParameter(Request.java:1040)
> at
> org.apache.catalina.connector.RequestFacade.getParameter(RequestFacade.java:355)
> ......
>
> Has anyone seen anything like this before, and know how to handle it? It
> appears Firefox 2.0.0.8 browsers and IE browsers are both passing POST
> commands that are resulting in this exception.
>
> A quick search on google reveals a bunch of other people who dont know
> what it is, and well, the source code that throws the exception.
>
> Best Regards,
> Jacob
>
> --
> _________________________________________________
> Jacob Rhoden
> Application Architect
> Systems Development and Integration
> University of Melbourne
>
> Phone: +61 3 8344 2884
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To start a new topic, e-mail: users@tomcat.apache.org
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscribe@tomcat.apache.org
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>
>
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Re: Strante tomcat warning - WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding failed. Parameter skipped.
Posted by TimJowers <Ti...@VerizonBusiness.com>.
Jacob Rhoden <jacob <at> rhoden.id.au> writes:
Did you figure this out?
It is due to a spurious extra %> at the end of a link. E.g.
<td>
<iframe width="900" height="700" src="bugger.jsp?c=<%=ch%>&s=<%=sh%> %>">
</iframe>
</td>
Notice the programmer typed %> %> when meant %>.
The error message:
WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding failed. Parameter skipped.
java.io.CharConversionException: EOF
at org.apache.tomcat.util.buf.UDecoder.convert(UDecoder.java:83)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.buf.UDecoder.convert(UDecoder.java:49)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.urlDecode(Parameters.java:412)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.processParameters(Parameters.j
ava:394)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.processParameters(Parameters.j
ava:510)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.handleQueryParameters(Paramete
rs.java:267)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.parseParameters(Request.java:24
21)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.getParameter(Request.java:1040)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.RequestFacade.getParameter(RequestFacad
e.java:355)
at org.apache.jsp.buggershowURL_jsp._jspService(buggershowURL_jsp.java:5
7)
at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:70)
sorta hides the real problem of a malformed URL. Maybe a good case for a nested
Exception message. Or just don't make typos and the problem will not occur.
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Re: Strante tomcat warning - WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding
failed. Parameter skipped.
Posted by Jacob Rhoden <ja...@rhoden.id.au>.
Hi Mark,
I was aware that mod_jk2 was deprecated I just did not know that our
provider setup the system using mod_jk2 until you prompted me to
investigate. Thanks for your help!
Best Regards,
Jacob
Mark Thomas wrote:
> mod_jk2!!! Are you sure. That module has been deprecated for several
> years.
>
> mod_jk2 may be manipulating the URI. You should be aware of
> CVE-2007-1860 (see http://tomcat.apache.org/security-jk.html). In
> short mod_jk URI handling created a few security holes. We didn't
> check mod_jk2 for this issue.
>
> For further reading, see
> http://tomcat.apache.org/connectors-doc/reference/apache.html
> particularly the ForwardURIxxx directives.
>
> HTH,
>
> Mark
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
>
--
_________________________________________________
Jacob Rhoden
Application Architect
Systems Development and Integration
University of Melbourne
Phone: +61 3 8344 2884
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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Re: Strante tomcat warning - WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding
failed. Parameter skipped.
Posted by Mark Thomas <ma...@apache.org>.
Jacob Rhoden wrote:
> Mark Thomas wrote:
>> Jacob Rhoden wrote:
>>
>>> This is as far as I got. Why would the browser be encoding its requests
>>> in anything other than base64.....
>>>
>>
>> Are you using mod_jk? There is a config that could cause this.
>>
>
> We did not configure the server, our provider did.... I just checked and
> eek!! its using mod_jk2! I suspect that would be the reason.
mod_jk2!!! Are you sure. That module has been deprecated for several
years.
mod_jk2 may be manipulating the URI. You should be aware of
CVE-2007-1860 (see http://tomcat.apache.org/security-jk.html). In
short mod_jk URI handling created a few security holes. We didn't
check mod_jk2 for this issue.
For further reading, see
http://tomcat.apache.org/connectors-doc/reference/apache.html
particularly the ForwardURIxxx directives.
HTH,
Mark
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Re: Strante tomcat warning - WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding
failed. Parameter skipped.
Posted by Jacob Rhoden <ja...@rhoden.id.au>.
Mark Thomas wrote:
> Jacob Rhoden wrote:
>
>> This is as far as I got. Why would the browser be encoding its requests
>> in anything other than base64.....
>>
>
> Are you using mod_jk? There is a config that could cause this.
>
We did not configure the server, our provider did.... I just checked and
eek!! its using mod_jk2! I suspect that would be the reason.
Best Regards,
Jacob
--
_________________________________________________
Jacob Rhoden
Application Architect
Systems Development and Integration
University of Melbourne
Phone: +61 3 8344 2884
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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Re: Strante tomcat warning - WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding
failed. Parameter skipped.
Posted by Mark Thomas <ma...@apache.org>.
Jacob Rhoden wrote:
> This is as far as I got. Why would the browser be encoding its requests
> in anything other than base64. I had just wondered if this was a common
> problem with a somewhat simple solution. I don't really have time to go
> digging around in TCP dumps at the moment so I guess the error will have
> to live on for the time being, thanks for your feedback.
Are you using mod_jk? There is a config that could cause this.
Mark
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Re: Strante tomcat warning - WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding
failed. Parameter skipped.
Posted by Jacob Rhoden <ja...@rhoden.id.au>.
This is as far as I got. Why would the browser be encoding its requests
in anything other than base64. I had just wondered if this was a common
problem with a somewhat simple solution. I don't really have time to go
digging around in TCP dumps at the moment so I guess the error will have
to live on for the time being, thanks for your feedback.
Best Regards,
Jacob
Mark Thomas wrote:
> One of the x characters in %xx is not a hex digit (0-9, A-F).
>
> Start looking at your requests (I use TcpMon from the Axis project but
> there are plenty of tools that do the same sort of thing) and see
> which of the %xx values is invalid.
>
> Are you using mod_jk at all? If so, you'll need to look at browser to
> httpd/IIS/etc and httpd/IIS/etc to Tomcat. You can turn up the log
> level to look at the mod_jk messages.
>
>
--
_________________________________________________
Jacob Rhoden
Application Architect
Systems Development and Integration
University of Melbourne
Phone: +61 3 8344 2884
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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Re: Strante tomcat warning - WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding
failed. Parameter skipped.
Posted by Mark Thomas <ma...@apache.org>.
Jacob Rhoden wrote:
> Martin Gainty wrote:
>> Please post the encoding attribute located on the top line for you
>> web.xml
>> e.g.
>> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
>>
> I had wondered if that was relevant.
This is completely and totally irrelevant with respect to the warning
you are seeing in the logs.
> To make sure we handle
> international characters properly we are using:
This is all good.
> I assume the filter is working as Chinese characters can now go to and
> from tomcat correctly from a html form. Any help much appreciated.
Everything you need to know is there in the stack trace. See below.
>>> Oct 25, 2007 12:04:23 AM org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters
>>> processParameters
>>> WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding failed. Parameter skipped.
One of your request parameters has been ignored because it could not
be decoded from %xx form. And the reason ...
>>> java.io.CharConversionException: isHexDigit
One of the x characters in %xx is not a hex digit (0-9, A-F).
Start looking at your requests (I use TcpMon from the Axis project but
there are plenty of tools that do the same sort of thing) and see
which of the %xx values is invalid.
Are you using mod_jk at all? If so, you'll need to look at browser to
httpd/IIS/etc and httpd/IIS/etc to Tomcat. You can turn up the log
level to look at the mod_jk messages.
Mark
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Re: Strante tomcat warning - WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding
failed. Parameter skipped.
Posted by Jacob Rhoden <ja...@rhoden.id.au>.
Martin Gainty wrote:
> Please post the encoding attribute located on the top line for you web.xml
> e.g.
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
>
I had wondered if that was relevant. To make sure we handle
international characters properly we are using:
<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"
pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
And on top of this to make sure the characters are handled properly, we
have a servlet filter with the following code:
request.setCharacterEncoding("UTF-8");
response.setCharacterEncoding("UTF-8");
With the following to (i assume) apply it to all servlets and JSP's:
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>AuthorisationFilter</filter-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
I assume the filter is working as Chinese characters can now go to and
from tomcat correctly from a html form. Any help much appreciated.
Best Regards,
Jacob
>> We are having an elusive issue on one of our production servers using
>> Tomcat 6.0.14, every few minutes we are getting a request that results
>> in the following exception:
>>
>> Oct 25, 2007 12:04:23 AM org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters
>> processParameters
>> WARNING: Parameters: Character decoding failed. Parameter skipped.
>> java.io.CharConversionException: isHexDigit
>> at org.apache.tomcat.util.buf.UDecoder.convert(UDecoder.java:88)
>> at org.apache.tomcat.util.buf.UDecoder.convert(UDecoder.java:49)
>> at
>> org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.urlDecode(Parameters.java:412)
>> at
>>
>>
> org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.processParameters(Parameters.java:394
> )
>
>> at
>>
>>
> org.apache.tomcat.util.http.Parameters.processParameters(Parameters.java:346
> )
>
>> at
>> org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.parseParameters(Request.java:2470)
>> at
>> org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.getParameter(Request.java:1040)
>> at
>>
>>
> org.apache.catalina.connector.RequestFacade.getParameter(RequestFacade.java:
> 355)
>
>> ......
>>
>> Has anyone seen anything like this before, and know how to handle it? It
>> appears Firefox 2.0.0.8 browsers and IE browsers are both passing POST
>> commands that are resulting in this exception.
>>
>> A quick search on google reveals a bunch of other people who dont know
>> what it is, and well, the source code that throws the exception.
>>
>> Best Regards,
>> Jacob
>>
>>
--
_________________________________________________
Jacob Rhoden
Application Architect
Systems Development and Integration
University of Melbourne
Phone: +61 3 8344 2884
---------------------------------------------------------------------
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