HTTP 403 error upon submitting form

[kitsch]

Good day.
I'm basically new to PHP programming, and I'm getting a grasp. I've been googling anywhere possible but I can't seem to have codes working for me. I have a code and when the form is submitted, it gives off an 'HTTP 403' error. Here's the code:

<form name="search" method="post" action="$PHP_SELF?">
Seach for: <input type="text" name="find" /> in 
<Select NAME="field">
<Option VALUE="fname">First Name</option>
<Option VALUE="lname">Last Name</option>
<Option VALUE="info">Profile</option>
</Select>
<input type="hidden" name="searching" value="yes" />
<input type="submit" name="search" value="Search" />
</form>
 
<?
if ($searching =="yes") 
{ 
echo "<h2>Results</h2><p>"; 
 
 
if ($find == "") 
{ 
echo "<p>You forgot to enter a search term"; 
exit; 
} 
 
 
mysql_connect("localhost", "root", "m1ch3ll3") or die(mysql_error()); 
mysql_select_db("sample") or die(mysql_error()); 
 
 
$find = strtoupper($find); 
$find = strip_tags($find); 
$find = trim ($find); 
 
 
$data = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE upper($field) LIKE'%$find%'"); 
 
//And we display the results 
while($result = mysql_fetch_array( $data )) 
{ 
echo $result['fname']; 
echo " "; 
echo $result['lname']; 
echo "<br>"; 
echo $result['info']; 
echo "<br>"; 
echo "<br>"; 
} 
?>

hoping you could help me. thanks.

[pbmods]

Heya, kitsch.

A 403 usually means that you don't have correct file permissions set up for the file.

Are you running an Apache or IIS server?

[kitsch]

Heya, kitsch.

A 403 usually means that you don't have correct file permissions set up for the file.

Are you running an Apache or IIS server?

Hello.
I'm running Apache 2.2.

[pbmods]

Hm. I gave your code another look-over. Let's try one thing first.

Change this line:

<form name="search" method="post" action="$PHP_SELF?">

to this:

<form name="search" method="post" action="<?php echo htmlentities($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']); ?>">

[Markus]

Looks like you're using register_global s. Please note that this is feature is completely discared for PHP 6.

Markus.

[pbmods]

You also might find this article to be of interest:
http://php.net/register_globals