Hey everyone, I'm facing a bit of a head-scratcher with my jQuery $.post() requests. I've been using ajax for various operations on my website, such as logging in and updating user data. However, when I try to send special characters like '#' or even a test string like "" from my input fields, I get a 403 Forbidden error.
I initially thought it might be due to something in my PHP file as I'm sanitizing input, but even when I send plain values without any fancy processing, I still receive this error for the script tag. I've tried encoding the data with `encodeURIComponent()` and using `JSON.stringify()`, which helped a bit with special characters, but not with the script tag. Is this possibly a security feature from my hosting provider? Any insights would be appreciated!
4 Answers
Ah, this is a common issue - it sounds like mod_security might be the culprit here. I suggest reaching out to your hosting provider to see if they can tweak the mod_security settings or guide you on how to adjust them yourself if possible.
You should definitely share your sanitization logic for better insights, but remember that sending a script tag is generally a no-go as it can lead to XSS vulnerabilities. Could your hosting provider have some additional protection in place? Testing locally again might give you more clarity.
Just a thought, are you trying this in a production environment? Sometimes web applications with firewalls like CloudFlare can block inputs that seem suspicious, such as script tags, assuming they're malicious.
Good point! I did do some testing on XAMPP before uploading, but I think it might still be an issue with my hosting provider's security settings.
It sounds like your issue could be tied directly to how you're sanitizing your inputs. Try creating a simple endpoint that just echoes back whatever you send to it, without any sanitization or processing. That way, you can identify which specific part of your sanitization code is triggering the 403 error. It might just be one particular input that's being flagged as unsafe.
I thought of that too but when I tried sending plain text (like just `$("#textbox").val();`) without any handling, I still got the 403 for the script tag. Just the '#' character seemed fine.
Totally agree! I'm working on stripping out any tags to keep the site safe. However, even with just plain text, the 403 still shows up. I might need an error handler for those returns since, as you said, no one should send a script tag in the first place.