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Disallowed Key Characters When Saving Variables

Nicholas Powell 20 Aug 2014 01:33 problem, complete

Hi there,
I seem to be having an issue where whenever I try to either edit or create a new variable it returns a blank screen with nothing but the words "Disallowed Key Characters"

I am using EE 2.8.0 and Low Variables 2.5.0

I've seen this thread https://getsatisfaction.com/low/topic...
but it doesn't seem to answer my problem

Thank you in advance for your help.

Replies

  1. Low 20 Aug 2014 08:46

    I'll need to take a look myself. Please send SuperAdmin and FTP login credentials to hi at gotolow dot com if you can.

  2. Low 21 Aug 2014 10:59

    This seems to be environmental somehow. I cannot pinpoint exactly where the error lies, but it's looking like a server setting of some sort.

    If you save the variables using the CP url "your-domain.com/admin.php" rather than "your-domain.com/system/index.php", it works without issues. When accessing the CP via the latter url, it throws the error. The code is exactly the same, and in my EE 2.8, both work the same, not throwing any errors.

    Now, why using admin.php doesn't throw errors and using system/index.php does, I'm not sure. Like I said, it's looking like it's server environment related.

    Nicholas Powell 25 Aug 2014 23:27

    Thank you for your help, I'lll have to keep looking into it

  3. Low 27 Aug 2014 14:22

    To follow up a bit; are you using custom or dynamic config settings at all?

  4. Nicholas Powell 28 Aug 2014 00:50

    If by config settings you mean apache or php configs I wouldn't be able to tell you because we don't manage the hosting.

  5. Low 28 Aug 2014 10:29

    I mean custom configs in either your /system/index.php or config.php file (or both).

  6. Nicholas Powell 2 Sep 2014 03:35

    Sorry it took so long,
    No, everything is default except for the index.php and admin.php in the root where we've changed the cp directory name.

  7. Low 2 Sep 2014 11:03

    Any chance you can activate the logins you sent earlier again? I'd like to take another look.

    Nicholas Powell 3 Sep 2014 05:34

    I just re-activated them for you.

  8. Low 3 Sep 2014 11:32

    Apparently, submitting the form with Grid settings (which can be hidden) triggers a 403. The server tries to find a 403.shtml file (which isn't there) and tries to show a front-end EE page instead, because of the htaccess rule. That's what triggers the Disallowed Key Characters error.

    I've placed a 403.shtml file on your server, which it now shows instead of that error.

    That's one step closer, but I'm still not sure why it throws the 403. I'm still thinking that it is some security measure on the server (something like mod_security) although I can't see that in the phpinfo data. Might be worth contacting your host to ask why that form would trigger the 403.

  9. Nicholas Powell 4 Sep 2014 03:32

    Thank you again,
    I'll try a few things and get back to you if it starts working.

  10. Nicholas Powell 3 Dec 2014 03:56

    Hello again,
    We've finally worked through it. It was indeed an issue with mod_security.

    I have no idea how mod_security works but our host sent some logs. I'll forward them to you so that you can figure out what went wrong.

    Thanks for your help

  11. Low 3 Dec 2014 09:50

    Cool, thanks for the info!