How to handle FTP URL with a password containing special characters ?


This article applies to:

  • SWG 9.x
  • SWG 10.x

Question:

It is very common to use special characters in FTP passwords. These characters may cause browser conflicts when used for inline URL access.
 

Procedure:

For example, the password for FTP account USER on some_ftp_server.com is P@$$WORD - so the URL for browser access is:

ftp://USER:P@$$WORD@some_ftp_server.com

Special characters (@, $) in this URL have to be hex encoded to operate without any conflicts. And the hex conversion will look as following:

ftp://USER:P%40%24%24WORD@some_ftp_server.com

where %40 is the hex value (0x40) of '@' character and %24 is the hex value (0x24) of '$' character.

For complete list of special characters conversion codes refer to the following resource: http://www.ascii.cl/htmlcodes.htm

 



Last Modified 8/23/2012.
https://support.trustwave.com/kb/KnowledgebaseArticle14938.aspx