Apache/mod_rewrite > Tomcat encoding %26 and "&"

Question

Apache is the front-end to my web app then I use mod_rewrite to proxy the request to JBoss. So far this sounds pretty standard, but the problem I am having is: if I access the app directly through jboss @ http://localhost:8080/app/page?raw=foo%26bar&page=1:

request.getParameter("raw") = foo&bar

If I access the app through Apache @ http://localhost/foo%26bar&page=1

request.getParameter("raw") = foo

So somewhere along the way, the %26 is lost and replaced with an & which chops the raw variable.

This is my Apache rewrite rule.

RewriteRule ^/(.*) \
    http://localhost:8080/app/home?raw=$1 [L,P]

The Apache access log shows: http://localhost/foo%26bar&page=1

And the rewrite log shows: http://localhost:8080/app/home?raw=foo&bar&page=1

But I want the request to be: http://localhost:8080/app/home?raw=foo%26bar&page=1

I am pretty sure that this also occurs with slashes / too so to me this is some sort of encoding issue. Is there a way to proxy the URL untouched? Can't seem to figure this one out.

EDIT:

First thing I would like to say is thank you to Gumbo for giving me some very good suggestions! Based on those suggestions, I have simplified my Apache configuration for testing purposes.

This is what it looks like:

ServerRoot "C:/apps/xampplite/apache"
Listen 80

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
LoadModule log_config_module modules/mod_log_config.so

ServerAdmin postmaster@localhost
ServerName localhost:80
DocumentRoot "C:/apps/xampplite/htdocs"
ErrorLog "logs/error.log"
LogLevel debug
DefaultType text/plain

<IfModule log_config_module>
    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common

    <IfModule logio_module>
      LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" %I %O" combinedio
    </IfModule>
    CustomLog "logs/access.log" combined
</IfModule>

RewriteEngine On    
RewriteLog "C:/apps/xampplite/apache/logs/rewrite.log"
RewriteLogLevel 9 
RewriteMap escape int:escape
RewriteRule ^/(.*) http://localhost:8080/app/home?raw=${escape:$1} [L,P]

Here are the steps I took: Start Apache, go to

http://localhost/foo%26bar&page=1

in my web browser, stop Apache.

Access log entries:

::1 - - [15/Mar/2010:19:17:18 -0400] "GET /foo%26bar&page=1 HTTP/1.1" 403 224 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2) Gecko/20100115 Firefox/3.6"

Rewrite log entries:

::1 - - [15/Mar/2010:19:17:18 --0400] [localhost/sid#54d160][rid#5e1360/initial] (2) init rewrite engine with requested uri /foo&bar&page=1
::1 - - [15/Mar/2010:19:17:18 --0400] [localhost/sid#54d160][rid#5e1360/initial] (3) applying pattern '^/(.*)' to uri '/foo&bar&page=1'
::1 - - [15/Mar/2010:19:17:18 --0400] [localhost/sid#54d160][rid#5e1360/initial] (5) map lookup OK: map=escape key=foo&bar&page=1 -> val=foo&bar&page=1
::1 - - [15/Mar/2010:19:17:18 --0400] [localhost/sid#54d160][rid#5e1360/initial] (2) rewrite '/foo&bar&page=1' -> 'http://localhost:8080/app/home?raw=foo&bar&page=1'
::1 - - [15/Mar/2010:19:17:18 --0400] [localhost/sid#54d160][rid#5e1360/initial] (3) split uri=http://localhost:8080/app/home?raw=foo&bar&page=1 -> uri=http://localhost:8080/app/home, args=raw=foo&bar&page=1
::1 - - [15/Mar/2010:19:17:18 --0400] [localhost/sid#54d160][rid#5e1360/initial] (2) forcing proxy-throughput with http://localhost:8080/app/home

Error log entries:

[Mon Mar 15 19:16:56 2010] [notice] Apache/2.2.12 (Win32) configured -- resuming normal operations
[Mon Mar 15 19:16:56 2010] [notice] Server built: Jul 22 2009 11:35:54
[Mon Mar 15 19:16:56 2010] [notice] Parent: Created child process 2324
[Mon Mar 15 19:16:56 2010] [debug] mpm_winnt.c(487): Parent: Sent the scoreboard to the child
[Mon Mar 15 19:16:57 2010] [notice] Child 2324: Child process is running
[Mon Mar 15 19:16:57 2010] [debug] mpm_winnt.c(408): Child 2324: Retrieved our scoreboard from the parent.
[Mon Mar 15 19:16:57 2010] [info] Parent: Duplicating socket 148 and sending it to child process 2324
[Mon Mar 15 19:16:57 2010] [info] Parent: Duplicating socket 140 and sending it to child process 2324
[Mon Mar 15 19:16:57 2010] [debug] mpm_winnt.c(605): Parent: Sent 2 listeners to child 2324
[Mon Mar 15 19:16:57 2010] [debug] mpm_winnt.c(564): Child 2324: retrieved 2 listeners from parent
[Mon Mar 15 19:16:57 2010] [notice] Child 2324: Acquired the start mutex.
[Mon Mar 15 19:16:57 2010] [notice] Child 2324: Starting 64 worker threads.
[Mon Mar 15 19:16:57 2010] [notice] Child 2324: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Mon Mar 15 19:16:57 2010] [notice] Child 2324: Starting thread to listen on port 80.
[Mon Mar 15 19:17:18 2010] [error] [client ::1] attempt to make remote request from mod_rewrite without proxy enabled: proxy:http://localhost:8080/app/home
[Mon Mar 15 19:17:52 2010] [notice] Parent: Received shutdown signal -- Shutting down the server.
[Mon Mar 15 19:17:52 2010] [notice] Child 2324: Exit event signaled. Child process is ending.
[Mon Mar 15 19:17:52 2010] [info] Child 2324: Accept thread exiting.
[Mon Mar 15 19:17:53 2010] [notice] Child 2324: Released the start mutex
[Mon Mar 15 19:17:53 2010] [info] Child 2324: Accept thread exiting.
[Mon Mar 15 19:17:53 2010] [info] Child 2324: 64 threads blocked on the completion port
[Mon Mar 15 19:17:54 2010] [notice] Child 2324: All worker threads have exited.
[Mon Mar 15 19:17:54 2010] [notice] Child 2324: Child process is exiting
[Mon Mar 15 19:17:54 2010] [notice] Parent: Child process exited successfully.
[Mon Mar 15 19:17:54 2010] [info] removed PID file C:/apps/xampplite/apache/logs/httpd.pid (pid=1424)

Interestingly enough the first entry in the access log shows the %26 and it is gone in the first entry of the rewrite log.

Still puzzled by this one...

Answer 1

Try it with the NE flag to prevent escaping of that character:

RewriteRule ^/(.*) http://localhost:8080/app/home?raw=$1 [NE,L,P]

---

Edit    I think I got that wrong. Rather than preventing the value to be escaped you need to enforce escaping. Try it with the internal escape function:

RewriteMap escape int:escape
RewriteRule ^/(.*) http://localhost:8080/app/home?raw=${escape:$1} [L,P]

Answer 2

This should work:

RewriteRule ^/(.*) http://localhost:8080/app/home?raw=$1 [B,NE,L,P]

As should this:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(.*)
RewriteRule ^/(.*) http://localhost:8080/app/home?raw=%1 [L,P]