"Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

I have a weird problem with a site that doesn't face issues in development using Cassini, but crashes hard when deployed to an IIS 6.0. Windows 2003 server.

Basically, I'm using a rewriting engine and everything goes fine if, say, I have a URL like this:

www.site.com/products.list

...but when I append a page number to the end like this:

www.site.com/products.list/2

ASP.NET blows up and gives me this the error at the bottom of the post.

I know there are some issues with URL rewriting in ASP.NET 2.0 as described here:

http://todotnet.com/archive/0001/01/01/7472.aspx?Pending=true

But this actually doesn't apply to me. I'm seeing the error when browsing to the site with internet explorer!

Is there something wrong with using numbers at the end of a URL with IIS 6.0?

Again here's the error info:

Server Error in '/' Application.

Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory.

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:

[HttpException (0x80004005): Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory.]
   System.Web.Util.UrlPath.ReduceVirtualPath(String path) +3527366
   System.Web.Util.UrlPath.Reduce(String path) +84
   System.Web.Util.UrlPath.Combine(String appPath, String basepath, String relative) +355
   System.Web.HttpResponse.ApplyAppPathModifier(String virtualPath) +208
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.SiteMapPath.InitializeItem(SiteMapNodeItem item) +761
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.SiteMapPath.CreateItem(Int32 itemIndex, SiteMapNodeItemType itemType, SiteMapNode node) +111
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.SiteMapPath.CreateControlHierarchyRecursive(Int32& index, SiteMapNode node, Int32 parentLevels) +88
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.SiteMapPath.CreateControlHierarchy() +93
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.SiteMapPath.CreateChildControls() +29
   System.Web.UI.Control.EnsureChildControls() +87
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +41
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +161
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +161
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +161
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +161
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +1360

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.42; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.42

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

What is the actual rewrittent URL? What do the IIS logs show for the request?

Jeff

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

The actual rewritten url for a URL like: www.site.com/products.list/2 would be: www.site.com/list.aspx?type=products&page=2.

Looking at the event logs for the server, I can see an application warning providing much of the same exception information as above and noting that the URL is (paraphrased) www.site.com/list.aspx?type=products&page=2 with a request path of: /list.aspx.

I suppose it's logical that somehow, something that ASP.NET rewrites is referencing a resource like ../../resource but first: I don't know why it would be doing that as I override the form to remove the action and I don't use any ResolveUrl() functions and second: it works perfectly with the Cassini server on Windows XP Pro!

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

hi ,

i get the same message .i checked the entire code , i dont have the .. reference to anywhere in the code .

Is there any other reason why this does not work ? .I have tried everything including the settings of the IIS , searching the code , etc ... ALso cannot find a solution in any newsgroups on the net.

Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory.

[No relevant source lines]

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

I actually fixed my problem. I can't remember exactly what the solution was (I'll try to double-check).

I think it ended up being that I had a .CSS file in a theme directory which got automatically added to the Page. It didn't jive with the URL rewriting, unfortunately.

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

I confirmed my suspicions. My problem was the way ASP.NET resolved the URL of the CSS file in the Theme directory. I simply moved the CSS file elsewhere so it wouldn't be automatically referenced (in the wrong way) and everything was fine.

I also recall that I could examine the HTML output of the page in the development environment and it had the defective reference, though it didn't manifest itself as a server-crasher until I moved the app to a Win 2k3 machine (in my case, there was a secondary mechanism of referencing the CSS file so I was none-the-wiser for a while). My point is that if you have a local develpment copy of the app, examine the problem Page and it should give you a clue about what's going wrong.

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

I tried changing the .css file from the themes folder ,but still the same error exists, only for my aspx pages.I have some asp pages also in the same site,and all of them work,none of the aspx pages work with this error .

Could there be any other reason ? I tried everything mentioned in all newsgroups , but none worked..

Please HELP !!!!

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

Did you examine the HTML produced by the problem pages in your development environment (i.e. on an XP machine)?

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

Yes... Thanks , I could identify the problem line from the HTML produced by the problem pages . It was traced to a line in the global.asax . I corrected it and it works now.

Thanks again for the help.........

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

No problem.

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

We got same problem.at that time we deleted one "webinfo" file from application .then it is working fine.

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

Hi All,

I found another situation in which this could occur...

Using Server.Transfer instead of Response.Redirect...

What I have is a Custom Control called "HtmlControl" which looks for the querystring of the content to show, if not found I redirect the response to the Sitemap with a message that the page is not found. I place a control onto a page "mypage.aspx". When the query string is not found my request was sent to a sitemap but after the page_PreRender my page errors out with the following message:

"Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory"

The interesting thing is that the response was sent back to mypage.aspx and that's the page which is shown on the error log. So I was trying all the style things described in your post and lots of other, then it hit me that it only started happening after I moved the functionality from UserControl (within the website) to the library as a Custom Control. That's when the errors started happening.

I think it happens because Server.Transfer is still using the previous page and Response.Redirect doesn't.

This is not the first issue I had with Server.Transfer where I had to rewrite some code... you can probably find some of the posts where I described/solved the similar issue same way.

Thank you for the post anyway cause it gave me some ideas of how to resolve the favicon on my master page...

Tatyana Hughes

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

did u guys enable parent path on iis directory configuration ?

I think there needs to be a clearer error message for this kind of mistake ?

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

I'm not sure what do you mean by "enable parent path on iis dir config" but there is a post I added regarding my issue. Since I changed the redirect I didn't have any issues:

http://forums.asp.net/p/1182074/2006352.aspx#2006352

If you have a better solution please explain better I'll gladly switch from Response.Redirect to Server.Transfer

Thanks,

Tatyana

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

This is the error I am getting:

Event code: 3005
Event message: An unhandled exception has occurred.
Event time: 12/23/2007 10:36:00 PM
Event time (UTC): 12/24/2007 3:36:00 AM
Event ID: 35801b7140f14040b14138208ef5e7d1
Event sequence: 540
Event occurrence: 18
Event detail code: 0

Application information:
    Application domain: /LM/W3SVC/1853235269/Root-1-128429392640001030
    Trust level: Full
    Application Virtual Path: /
    Application Path: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\zikbay_new.com\
    Machine name: H145104

Process information:
    Process ID: 159884
    Process name: w3wp.exe
    Account name: NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE

Exception information:
    Exception type: HttpException
    Exception message: Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory.

Request information:
    Request URL: http://as247gera.zikbay.com/ShowAd.aspx?id=3274
    Request path: /ShowAd.aspx
    User host address: 66.249.66.168
    User:
    Is authenticated: False
    Authentication Type:
    Thread account name: NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE

Thread information:
    Thread ID: 1
    Thread account name: NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
    Is impersonating: False
    Stack trace:    at System.Web.Util.UrlPath.ReduceVirtualPath(String path)
   at System.Web.Util.UrlPath.Reduce(String path)
   at System.Web.Util.UrlPath.Combine(String appPath, String basepath, String relative)
   at System.Web.HttpResponse.ApplyAppPathModifier(String virtualPath)
   at System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlForm.GetActionAttribute()
   at System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlForm.RenderAttributes(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlControl.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlForm.Render(HtmlTextWriter output)
   at System.Web.UI.Adapters.ControlAdapter.Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at FormRewriterControlAdapter.Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderControlInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ControlAdapter adapter)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderControl(HtmlTextWriter writer, ControlAdapter adapter)
   at System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlForm.RenderControl(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildrenInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ICollection children)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildren(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlContainerControl.Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderControlInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ControlAdapter adapter)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderControl(HtmlTextWriter writer, ControlAdapter adapter)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderControl(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildrenInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ICollection children)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildren(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderControlInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ControlAdapter adapter)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderControl(HtmlTextWriter writer, ControlAdapter adapter)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderControl(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildrenInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ICollection children)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderChildren(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at ShowAd_aspx.Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderControlInternal(HtmlTextWriter writer, ControlAdapter adapter)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderControl(HtmlTextWriter writer, ControlAdapter adapter)
   at System.Web.UI.Control.RenderControl(HtmlTextWriter writer)
   at System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint)

Custom event details:

For more information, see Help and Support Center at

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

I did some trace and found out it is caused by Google search crawler...

Traceroute

Tracing route to 66.249.66.168

Hop	Time	Host	IP	Location
1	34.215	wsip-70-183-59-1.oc.oc.cox.net	70.183.59.1	Irvine, CA, United States
2	34.113	68.4.15.9	68.4.15.9	Irvine, CA, United States
3	9.885	ip68-4-14-125.oc.oc.cox.net	68.4.14.125	Irvine, CA, United States
4	9.795	rsmtdsrj02-ge600.0.rd.oc.cox.net	68.4.14.213	Irvine, CA, United States
5	39.983	langbbr01-as0.r2.la.cox.net	68.1.0.230	Fort Walton Beach, FL, United States
6	23.491	cr1-pos-0-2-5-0.lay.savvis.net	204.70.203.46	New York, NY, United States
7	24.522	ber1-tenge-2-1.losangeles.savvis.net	204.70.193.106	New York, NY, United States
8	54.737	208.173.57.66	208.173.57.66	Cary, NC, United States
9	77.989	216.239.43.125	216.239.43.125	Mountain View, CA, United States
10	96.677	66.249.95.148	66.249.95.148	Mountain View, CA, United States
11	101.643	64.233.175.171	64.233.175.171	Mountain View, CA, United States
12	111.092	72.14.232.37	72.14.232.37	Mountain View, CA, United States
13	91.234	crawl-66-249-66-168.googlebot.com	66.249.66.168	Mountain View, CA, United States

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

how did u fix it ?

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

I did not. I am not sure why it happens, but I know the page is invoked by google search crawler.... Anybody knows how to fix it???

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

The page in question (from the error in the application log) does not have any leading "..": http://as247gera.zikbay.com/ShowAd.aspx?id=3274

Seems this is some kind of bug in ASP.NET: http://todotnet.com/archive/0001/01/01/7472.aspx?Pending=true

I have added this to web.config (suggested in http://communityserver.org/forums/p/476049/536640.aspx#536640). Let's see if it helps...

Re: "Cannot use a leading .. to exit above the top directory."

When the page is being invoked by the Google search it probably is just calling a URL with no parms. Are you handling empty parms at all? Also see is you have any custom controls on your page which are built into DLLs. Review how they handle redirects if no parms supplied.

Do you have any Server.Transfer code there?

Hope this helps...

Tatyana Hughes