This guide explains what you need to determine as a website visitor if you encounter a 403 error in order to resolve this issue.

What is a 403 error?

The HTTP 403 error code generally means that the server is denying the client access to a resource.

When does this error occur?

The user is not authenticated: the server requires the user to identify themselves to access the resource. This may be the case for private pages that require authentication, for example.

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

The user's IP address is blocked or restricted: the server may block access to a specific IP address for security reasons, to protect against attacks, etc. See this other guide.

The requested resource does not exist on the server: in this case, the server returns a 403 error instead of a 404 error to prevent the disclosure of confidential information. If you are trying to access your homepage or a part of your site by entering an address like www.domain.xyz or www.domain.xyz/folder/, make sure that there is indeed a homepage named "index.html, .htm, or .php" placed in the correct location (at the root of your FTP space, in the /web directory, or in the /folder/ directory). Refer to this other guide.

Also, check that there are no uppercase letters in the file name; all file and folder names must be in lowercase, without accents or spaces.

Script-related error: if you were running a script, filling out a form, or uploading a file and you receive 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 may be a filter that prevents the unwanted use of scripts by spammers. Indeed, the Infomaniak antivirus blocks file uploads via scripts or via FTP. This means that when a hacker sends a file identified as a virus via a form, an insecure script, or via FTP, its installation is directly blocked, the file is not uploaded to the server, and the upload generates a 403 error.

In the event of a false positive, contact Infomaniak support, providing the URL of the page where you are encountering this error message, in order to accurately diagnose the cause of the problem.

However, there are many other cases in which you may receive a "403 forbidden" message for a variety of reasons (PHP, perl scripts, mod_security, .htaccess, ...).