What is \x (backslash X)? String encoding?

I have some bad requests (400) in my apache error logs, from random IP addresses and all of the time these are unreadable encoded characters starting with \x, but I don’t know what kind of encoding this is. It might be harmless but I want to know what they mean.

What the hell is this?

PS. I meant StRing encoding in the title.

Thanks

I thought sting sounded cooler… Anyway corrected the title, and have no idea about the encoding

Reaper-Media said
I thought sting sounded cooler… Anyway corrected the title, and have no idea about the encoding

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it before. Something that represents the characters on a very low level, like the root of all encodings.. Maybe unmapped keys, or hex, or something extreme.

Hex

jwmcpeak said
Hex

And how do I convert it to ‘english’?

Firsh said

jwmcpeak said
Hex

And how do I convert it to ‘english’?

Sorry, I didn’t read the part where you wanted to know what it meant. I imagine the best way is an Apache log reader. There are a ton of those (and I don’t use Apache), so I don’t know what to recommend.

jwmcpeak said

Firsh said

jwmcpeak said
Hex

And how do I convert it to ‘english’?

Sorry, I didn’t read the part where you wanted to know what it meant. I imagine the best way is an Apache log reader. There are a ton of those (and I don’t use Apache), so I don’t know what to recommend.

Well I have AppServ (a server package for windows), and I open the read Apache Log. I don’t think there is any more to it than that file. It’s already very verbose listing every request that has been made. I cropped the screenshot but there are more information at the beginning of the lines like IP and time stamp. Majority of the requests are in plain english. But these are encrypted or I don’t know.

looks similar to shell code.

i wouldn’t worry, there’s probably some new exploit out for a web server or software so automated bots are going around testing everyones website to see if they can break it.

looks a bit python(ish), no clue what it means though, sorry