Problem with clean-urls and DOT in the search query

This also happens for me using the core node search - as you say, when clean URLs are disabled, there is no issue.

On my site, the result is 403 forbidden, rather than an infinite redirect loop.

If the search term is wrapped in quotes, then it works fine.

I haven't been able to reproduce it with any character other than .

This type of search shouldn't result in a broken page, though.

I'm not sure if it is specifically a search problem, or a problem with the .htaccess rules - other URLs with a . after a / will also produce the same behaviour, rather than the drupal 404 page.

e.g. http://www.red-route.org/test/.hello http://www.red-route.org/test/hello

also happens on d.o.: https://www.drupal.org/test/.hello

I see this is now fixed on drupal.org, but still broken on fresh install of 7.x-dev

This is being blocked by .htaccess

  # Block access to "hidden" directories whose names begin with a period. This
  # includes directories used by version control systems such as Subversion or
  # Git to store control files. Files whose names begin with a period, as well
  # as the control files used by CVS, are protected by the FilesMatch directive
  # above.
  #
  # NOTE: This only works when mod_rewrite is loaded. Without mod_rewrite, it is
  # not possible to block access to entire directories from .htaccess, because
  # <DirectoryMatch> is not allowed here.
  #
  # If you do not have mod_rewrite installed, you should remove these
  # directories from your webroot or otherwise protect them from being
  # downloaded.
  RewriteRule "(^|/)\." - [F]