Article ID: 184891 - Last Review: July 7, 2008 - Revision: 5.1

Server.HTMLEncode Garbles Extended Characters

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This article was previously published under Q184891

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http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/IIS.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/IIS.mspx)

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http://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=1 (http://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=1)

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SYMPTOMS

ASP script using Server.HTMLEncode produces garbled extended characters in single-byte character set (SBCS) code pages other than code page 1252 (U.S. ANSI).

This affects Eastern European languages, such as Czechoslovakian, Russian, and Hungarian.

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CAUSE

This problem may occur due to both of the following causes:

HTMLEncode incorrectly writes numeric character entities using SBCS codepoint values instead of the Unicode values. In HTML, &#xxx; entities represent Unicode values, not SBCS codepoints. When HTMLEncode determines that a numeric entity must be written, it must simply write the raw Unicode value in decimal, not the local code page equivalent.

-and-
HTMLEncode uses the wrong logic in determining when to write out a numeric character entity versus simply inserting the raw character. It appears to do the opposite of what is expected; it writes the incorrect character entities for characters that can be represented in Session.Codepage, and writes the nearest precomposed equivalent for other characters.

Instead, it should write the raw SBCS character for characters that can be represented in Session.Codepage, and the Unicode numeric character entity for characters that cannot.

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RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

152734 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/152734/EN-US/ ) How to Obtain the Latest Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Internet Information Server version 4.0. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 4.

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