malformed header being generated

Question

I'm working on a windows 10/Apache/dHTML (Perl) platform trying to upload an .HTML file. I have a form that allows me to browse to select the file I want to upload. The form line follows.

<FORM encTYPE='multipart/FORM-data' ACTION='uploadx.cgi' NAME='ManMe' METHOD='POST' ONSUBMIT='return reqchk()'>\n";

I'm getting the correct path and file to upload and destination path and file in uploadx.cgi as shown next as comments. The actual upload code follows.

# comment - $upload_filehandle is C:\usr\www\kyhealth.html - correct input location            
      $upload_filehandle = $page->upload("filex"); # File handle to uploaded file.

# comment - $thefn C:/Steep/USAData/State/KY/Ideals/Health/kyhealth.html - correct output location
      open(my $UF_fh,'>',$thefn) || croak "Couldn't open file $filex, $!";      

      if (index(lc($thefn),'.gif') > -1) {
        binmode($UF_fh); # Set file output to binary mode if image.
      }       

      while ( <$upload_filehandle> )  {      
        print $UF_fh; # Write it out.
      }

      close $UF_fh;

The errors in the Apache log file from the execution of uploaddx.cgi follow.

[Wed Jun 23 15:16:44.349636 2021] [core:error] [pid 9772:tid 1056] [client 192.253.246.153:62520] malformed header from script 'uploadx.cgi': Bad header: , referer: http://steepusa.no-ip.info/scx/cmf2mme.cgi?strmme=SKY_458~422~438~428~430~382_326~366~438~458~450~392_U_level3_326~366~438~458~450~392 [Wed Jun 23 15:16:44.349636 2021] [perl:warn] [pid 9772:tid 1056] /scx/uploadx.cgi did not send an HTTP header

The output file is created with the right name in the right place. But the file has zero bytes. there is no 'Content-type: text/html' header in the uploadx.cgi file. It just tries to upload the file and put it in new file in a particular directory as shown above. And the 'Bad Header:' is not telling me much.

I have looked at quite a few posts here and elsewhere about similar problems with no luck. Any help would be appreciated. I'm not sure how to move the ball on this one. Thanks.

ct

Answer 1

The first message follows from the first. The header emitted by the script is malformed in the sense that not emitting any header at all is a malformed header/response.

There are no conetnt headers coded in the uploadx process

HTTP requests must result in a response. You seem to be claiming that you do not send a response, which would result in exactly this kind of error. When you use a CGI script, the onus falls on the script to produce this response. If you don't, the server will typically send a 500 error response and log a message such as the one you asked about.

Keep in mind that a common reason for a script not sending a header is because it died (from a compile-time or run-time error) before it got a chance to do so. A situation such as this one should have left an earlier message in the log file.

Answer 2

It turns out that I'm experiencing significant degradation of ping, download and upload speeds. My upload speed was actually zero when I just did a speedtest with my provider. My telecommunications provider has opened a ticket. This is the first time I've encountered this situation. Thanks ikegami.

Answer 3

I changed from a hotspot internet connection to a router and that solved the malformed header problem. All upload tests were successful with the router connection.