ASP Downloads Text Instead of Executing

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Internet Information Server version 3.0

SYMPTOMS

Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) download instead of executing, even after you install the ASP fix for IIS.

CAUSE

You may have a virtual directory defined to a physical directory which parent is another virtual directory, and both have different permissions.

Example

Physical Directory c:\InetPub\wwwroot has an alias of "/" with Read Access

Physical Directory c:\InetPub\wwwroot\cgi-scripts has an alias of "/cgi-scripts" with Execute access.

If you were to type in <server>/cgi-scripts/<filename>.asp everything would work. However, if you used the 8.3 naming convention .. <server>/cgi-sc~1/<filename>.asp, the server would not find the virtual directory because it is not aware of long file names and their 8.3 equivalents). Because it did not find a virtual directory, it would reference the file through the physical directory structure. Therefore, it would load the ASP file with the roots access of Read.

WORKAROUND

It is recommended that you never create virtual directories to physical directories under existing virtual directories.

Keywords          : iisinterop kbinterop kbprb
Version           : winnt:3.0
Platform          : winnt
Hardware          : ALPHA x86
Issue type        : kbprb
Solution Type     : kbworkaround