How to set useUnsafeHeaderParsing in code

You need to set this is in your web.config, inside <system.net> section, like this:

<system.net> 
  <settings> 
   <httpWebRequest useUnsafeHeaderParsing="true" /> 
  </settings> 
</system.net> 

If, for some reason, you do not want to do it from your config, you could do it from code by prgrammatically setting your config settings. See this page for an example.

As Edwin has pointed out you need to set the useUnsafeHeaderParsing attribute in your web.config or app.config file. If you really want to change the value dynamically at runtime, then you'll have to resort to reflection as the value is buried in an instance of System.Net.Configuration.SettingsSectionInternal and not publicly accessible.

Here is a code example (based on the info found here) that does the trick:

using System;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Configuration;
using System.Reflection;

namespace UnsafeHeaderParsingSample
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            // Enable UseUnsafeHeaderParsing
            if (!ToggleAllowUnsafeHeaderParsing(true))
            {
                // Couldn't set flag. Log the fact, throw an exception or whatever.
            }

            // This request will now allow unsafe header parsing, i.e. GetResponse won't throw an exception.
            var request = (HttpWebRequest) WebRequest.Create("http://localhost:8000");
            var response = request.GetResponse();

            // Disable UseUnsafeHeaderParsing
            if (!ToggleAllowUnsafeHeaderParsing(false))
            {
                // Couldn't change flag. Log the fact, throw an exception or whatever.
            }

            // This request won't allow unsafe header parsing, i.e. GetResponse will throw an exception.
            var strictHeaderRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("http://localhost:8000");
            var strictResponse = strictHeaderRequest.GetResponse();
        }

        // Enable/disable useUnsafeHeaderParsing.
        // See http://o2platform.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/dealing-with-the-server-committed-a-protocol-violation-sectionresponsestatusline/
        public static bool ToggleAllowUnsafeHeaderParsing(bool enable)
        {
            //Get the assembly that contains the internal class
            Assembly assembly = Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(SettingsSection));
            if (assembly != null)
            {
                //Use the assembly in order to get the internal type for the internal class
                Type settingsSectionType = assembly.GetType("System.Net.Configuration.SettingsSectionInternal");
                if (settingsSectionType != null)
                {
                    //Use the internal static property to get an instance of the internal settings class.
                    //If the static instance isn't created already invoking the property will create it for us.
                    object anInstance = settingsSectionType.InvokeMember("Section",
                    BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.GetProperty | BindingFlags.NonPublic, null, null, new object[] { });
                    if (anInstance != null)
                    {
                        //Locate the private bool field that tells the framework if unsafe header parsing is allowed
                        FieldInfo aUseUnsafeHeaderParsing = settingsSectionType.GetField("useUnsafeHeaderParsing", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
                        if (aUseUnsafeHeaderParsing != null)
                        {
                            aUseUnsafeHeaderParsing.SetValue(anInstance, enable);
                            return true;
                        }

                    }
                }
            }
            return false;
        }
    }
}