Very long URL with malice intended

[Jack L. Stone]

Am running FBSD-4.8 with Apache/1.3.26

I posted this question first on the Apache.org list, but no reply. Thought
I would try here even though slightly offtopic.

Within the past couple of weeks, the Apache logs have shown a new type of
intrusion -- a very, very long URL request -- that finally receives a error
414. I don't know the purpose of this one, but doesn't appear
well-intended. It comes late at night and from different IPs. One request
even used one of my own IPs. So, the firewall won't help -- nor server deny.

My question is what syntax can I add, if any, to my httpd.conf to redirect
such requests..??

Here's a very small (about 1-5%) snippet of the nasty URL:

65.35.186.74 - - [26/Mar/2004:19:01:04 -0600] "SEARCH
/\x90\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb
1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x0
2\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb
1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x0
2\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb
1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x0
2\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02\xb1\x02 .... and
on and on....

Any suggestions on a way to stop these much appreciated.

Best regards,
Jack L. Stone,
Administrator

Sage American
http://www.sage-american.com
jacks at sage-american.com