PHP GET sending 403 Error during search

Question

I have a search bar for my website that keeps sending weird error messages when I type certain things into the search. Here is the page. http://www.pearlsquirrel.com/searchmusic.php . If I were to type in this "<><>" it sends me a message saying

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /searchmusic.php on this server.

I have tried to contact my hosting provider but they are of no help. I htink that this might be a problem with apache, but I do not know for sure. If anyone knows how to fix this error, any help would greatly be appreciated.

Answer 1

HTTP 403 errors may be thrown by security modules if they identify strange requests coming down the Apache pipeline. This is especially true if you are using a module like Mod Security.

In your case, sending a request with <><> may seem suspicious to the server, as it may interpret it as intending to find a vulnerability (a la SQL injection or what have you).