Disallowed key characters error message in Codeigniter (v2)

Question

I've recently come across this error within a custom cms i'm building - this error appears when I submit a form that uses a multiselect - can anyone suggest the most common reasons for this error.

ok - i think it might be the multi-select arrays causing the problem, eg I have an array like this within a table..

hotels[url][]
hotels[text][]
hotels[url][]

Would this not be allowed in the $_POST?

Well, the most common reason is you have unallowed characters in your inputs...(I'm not trying to be smart, you asked for a reason and the reason is that..Now post the code and let's see why you have those characters there. If they're not allowed there's a purpose) — Damien Pirsy, Feb 15 '12 at 16:20

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 15 '12 at 16:38

If you look in your config.php file inside the application/config folder you'll find this line:

$config['permitted_uri_chars'] = 'a-z 0-9~%.:_\-';

It's a regex containing whitelisted characters that codeigniter allows. If there is anything else in the querystring you will get that error.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 19 '12 at 02:19

1

remove commas from your input names. Eg: name['type'] is wrong. It should be name[type]

answered Dec 19 '12 at 02:19

Namal

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Mel Stanley · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-15T18:34:18.273

It could be you're submitting your form with GET instead of POST. Multi-selects usually use array notation (myarray[]) which are characters that are not usually allowed by CodeIgniter in the URL.

If you are sure you're using POST then I would suggest checking two things:

Make sure that if you're using CodeIgniter's CSRF protection that you are submitting a valid token with the form. You can test whether this is the problem by disabling CSRF protection and trying to submit the form. The CSRF protection is usually enabled in your config.php file via the $config['csrf_protection'] variable. More info on CodeIgniter's CSRF protection can be found here.
Double check the URL you're using to submit the form to make sure it doesn't have any characters that aren't permitted in your $config['permitted_uri_characters'] in application/config/config.php.

I've updated my answer to include a couple of other possibilities. Sometimes you get the message because of CSRF problems. — Mel Stanley, Feb 15 '12 at 18:35

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 01 '14 at 14:40

0

if ( ! preg_match(“/^[a-z0-9:_/-]+$|/i”, $str))

I add | (pipe) character on the example above

answered Dec 01 '14 at 14:40

Uttam Panara

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Disallowed key characters error message in Codeigniter (v2)

4 Answers4

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