404 requests for non-existent image

Forum Moderators: phranque

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404 requests for non-existent image

webdevfv

12:05 pm on Feb 15, 2013 (gmt 0)

Apologies if this has been answered before but I cannot find it relevant to my case.

Basically someone is delivering hundreds of 404s to me (I get an email notification when a 404 happens in order to track the issue) and it's getting on my nerves as they are blocking up my email and server with these email notifications.

The 404 is for an image that doesn't exist, i.e. mywebsite.com/images/name-of-product.jpg%3Fr%3D1

I've looked in my access logs but cannot seem to locate the page / website where the issue is coming from.

The IP addresses are all different so it seems someone has placed this 'image' on their website but has incorrectly named it.

I want to locate the webpage source so I can notify the person if possible.

phranque

3:47 pm on Feb 15, 2013 (gmt 0)

are your server access logs showing the referrer?

webdevfv

4:41 pm on Feb 15, 2013 (gmt 0)

I've looked at the server logs and they only show the referrer IP address for this particular file.

The IP addresses are all different.

lucy24

10:31 pm on Feb 15, 2013 (gmt 0)

:: detour to Character Viewer ::

Oh, I see. They're sticking a query string onto the end of the jpg
?r=1
and it's getting garbled in transit.

You might be able to make the problem go away by changing your IgnorePathInfo settings. That is, the underlying problem would still exist but you wouldn't see it.

I want to locate the webpage source so I can notify the person if possible.

Dear Site Owner:
I note that you have given the incorrect URL for one of your hotlinks. Please correct the hotlink to the following URL so your users will be able to view my hotlinked image:
http://www.example.com/images/kickme.jpg

As cosgan would say:
froehlich/a065.gif *

Can't you just tweak your e-mail routine so it ignores requests for this particular file?

* Steady there, moderators, it's only a link if you already know the site ;)

webdevfv

9:07 am on Feb 18, 2013 (gmt 0)

The thing is I thought I was preventing hotlinking with my .htaccess file so they probably have written the code incorrectly and because nothing is showing they don't even see a problem!

It's probably for an avatar or facebook page or something

webdevfv

9:11 am on Feb 18, 2013 (gmt 0)

I know I could make an exception but that's the road to hell - adding this and that exception etc

lucy24

10:40 am on Feb 18, 2013 (gmt 0)

and because nothing is showing they don't even see a problem!

:) Since nothing is showing, they're not benefiting from their hotlink either. You'd think by now someone would have noticed that the image doesn't show up. But maybe not, if it's in the original offender's browser cache. (Don't they know that you should always test links by emptying your cache and also trying a different browser? Honestly, hotlinkers these days.)

By the usual yawn-provoking coincidence, it can't be more than 48 hours since someone else had a completely unrelated question that also involved garbage being attached to the end of an URL. If you wanted to, you could cut to the chase with (note, no anchors!)

RewriteRule \.jpg.+ /nohotlinks.png [NC,L]

If all your malformed jpg requests are from hotlinkers and similar unwanted sources, you wouldn't even need a condition.

Alternatively, if your existing hotlink routine includes an element like
\.(png|gif|jpe?g)$
you could simply remove the ending anchor. That's assuming for the sake of discussion that you don't have any normal pages with ".jpg" sitting in the middle of the URL.