Cobra Forum

Question
Domain in Plesk shows error 403: rewritten query string contains control characters or spaces
Symptoms

• A domain in Plesk contains the %20 symbol in the link, for example:

https://www.example.com/something/link%202.

• After the Apache update to 2.4.41-4ubuntu3.14, these links become inaccessible in a browser with:

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access this resource.
Apache Server at www.example.com Port 443

• The following error can be found in the domain's logs:

AH10411: Rewritten query string contains control characters or spaces
Cause
mod_rewrite is now blocking "unsafe" requests.

Resolution
Perform one of the following:

• Adjust the website code (change URLs).
• Switch the domain from PHP-FPM to FastCGI in Domains > example.com > PHP Settings.
• As a workaround downgrade Apache on the server:

# apt install apache2=2.4.41-4ubuntu3 apache2=2.4.41-4ubuntu3 apache2-data=2.4.41-4ubuntu3 apache2-utils=2.4.41-4ubuntu3 apache2-bin=2.4.41-4ubuntu3
and forbid further apache updates.