Per Nilsson
Jan 18, 2012
  19372
(4 votes)

MS Update MS11-100 breaks sites with more than 1000 parameters

Got a ticket to the support with an error I haven't seen before and found out that the reason is a two weeks old Microsoft hotfix. It might happen to someone else so wanted to write a few rows how to solve it if you run into the problem.

During the holidays MS published the security update MS11-100. This update has been released to fix ASP.NET DoS vulnerability and limits the amount of parameters for a single HTTP POST to 1000. It's probably not that often you use more than 1000 parameters but this is the error you will end up with if you do (the one to look for is ThrowIfMaxHttpCollectionKeysExceeded):

 

Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.

Source Error:

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace:
[InvalidOperationException: Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object.]
System.Web.HttpValueCollection.ThrowIfMaxHttpCollectionKeysExceeded() +2692302
System.Web.HttpValueCollection.FillFromEncodedBytes(Byte[] bytes, Encoding encoding) +61
System.Web.HttpRequest.FillInFormCollection() +148

[HttpException (0x80004005): The URL-encoded form data is not valid.]
System.Web.HttpRequest.FillInFormCollection() +206
System.Web.HttpRequest.get_Form() +68
System.Web.HttpRequest.get_HasForm() +8735447
System.Web.UI.Page.GetCollectionBasedOnMethod(Boolean dontReturnNull) +97
System.Web.UI.Page.DeterminePostBackMode() +63
System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +133

 

Solution:
When they added the limitation of parameters they also added the possiblilty to override the default value by a new setting in web.config. Can also mention that it’s not possible to apply different values at different locations. 

Add the following setting to web.config with a value larger than 1000 (default):

<appSettings>
   <add key="aspnet:MaxHttpCollectionKeys" value="some number here"/>
</appSettings>

The above setting should fix the problem.

 

Links:
Info about the hotfix and people getting the error in the discussion following the article:
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2011/12/28/asp-net-security-update-shipping-thursday-dec-29th.aspx

The same error discussed in a forum
http://forums.asp.net/t/1754522.aspx/1?New+Net+2+0+Bug+From+Windows+Update+

Jan 18, 2012

Comments

Please login to comment.
Latest blogs
Optimizely Commerce vs Composable Commerce: What Should You Do with CMS 13?

As organizations modernize their digital experience platforms, a common architectural question emerges: Should we continue using Optimizely Commerc...

Aniket | Mar 12, 2026

Missing Properties tool for Optimizely CMS

If you have been working with Optimizely CMS for a while you have probably accumulated some technical debt in your property definitions. When you...

Per Nergård (MVP) | Mar 10, 2026

AI Generated Optimizely Developer Newsletter

Updates in the Optimizely ecosystem are everywhere: blog posts, forums, release notes, NuGet packages, and documentation changes. This newsletter...

Allan Thraen | Mar 10, 2026 |

Lessons from Building Production-Ready Opal Tools

AI tools are becoming a normal part of modern digital platforms. With  Optimizely Opal , teams can build tools that automate real tasks across the...

Praful Jangid | Mar 7, 2026

My Takeaway from Optimizely Opal Agents in Action 2026 - What Agentic AI Means for the Future of Digital Marketing

I would like to share with you what stayed in my head after this amazing virtual event organized by Optimizely. Agents in Action 2026 , a live...

Augusto Davalos | Mar 6, 2026

From Vision to Velocity: Introducing the Optimizely MVP Technical Roundtable

Digital transformation is a two-sided coin. On one side, you have the high-level strategy, the business cases, the customer journeys, and the...

Patrick Lam | Mar 6, 2026