Solve an error 403 as a website visitor

This guide explains what you need to determine as a website visitor if you get a type 403 errorin order to solve this problem.

What is error 403?

HTTP error code 403 usually means that access to a resource is denied to the client by the server.

In what case does this error occur?

The user is not authenticatedThe server requires the user to identify to access the resource. This may be the case for private pages requiring authentication, for example.

The user is authenticated but does not have the necessary permissionsThe server recognizes the user but does not allow access to the requested resource due to permission or role restrictions. This cause of error 403 may be an incorrect permission problem, on a folder or file. For a folder, the error message is of type "403 Forbidden", for a file, "failed to open stream: Permission denied". In this case you must check that the permissions of your folders / files are correct, i.e. minimum 644 for a file and 755 for a folder. Read more

The user's IP address is blocked or restricted: the server can block access to a specific IP address for security reasons, protection against attacks... Read more

The requested resource does not exist on the serverIn this case, the server returns an error 403 rather than an error 404 to avoid the disclosure of confidential information. If you are trying to simply access your home page or part of your site, indicating a type address www.domaine.xyz or www.domaine.xyz/dossier/ Make sure there is a home page named "index.html or .htm or .php" placed in the right place (at the root of your FTP space, in the /web directory, or in the /folder/ directory). Read more

In addition, make sure that there is no uppercase in the file name, all file names or folders present must be in lowercase, without accent or space.

Script errorIf you are running a script, filling out a form, loading a file online and you get this type of message:

Accès interdit!
Vous n'avez pas le droit d'accéder à l'objet demandé.
Soit celui-ci est protégé, soit il ne peut être lu par le serveur.
Si vous pensez qu'il s'agit d'une erreur du serveur, veuillez contacter le gestionnaire du site.
Error 403

the cause can be a filter that prevents unwanted use of scripts by spammers. Indeed, the Infomaniak Antivirus blocks uploading files via scripts or via FTP. This means that when a hacker sends a file identified as a virus via a form, an unsecured script or via FTP, its installation is directly blocked, the file is not uploaded to the server and the upload generates an error 403.

In case of false positives,contact Infomaniak support by giving the URL of the page where you encounter this error message in order to accurately diagnose the origin of the problem.

There are however many other cases among which you could get a message "403 forbidden" and for very different reasons ( PHP, perl, mod_security, .htaccess, ...).