Problem with 403 Forbidden error
More than once something like this has happened to us, and upon entering our own site the following message appears:
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /index.php on this server.
Additionally, the 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use year ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache mod_fcgid / 2.3.5 mod_auth_passthrough / 2.1 mod_bwlimited / 1.4 FrontPage / 5.0.2.2635 Server at geofumadas.com Port 80
There are variants of the same error, for various reasons, but if you have a site hosted on Wordpress and have been working within the administrator panel, for this to have happened, we must have performed a strange action that forced Apache to block as prevention automatic (Looped forwarding). In my case it has happened to me several times, such as:
- Having too loaded the home page, usually with many scripts or the famous tinthumb wanting to force the output of many images.
- Execute a script that is too heavy, such as a fix-redirect with too many records selected. Now that Wordpress allows you to choose the number of records displayed, it makes several things easier, but it is dangerous if we make massive changes from that deployment.
We must verify if it is only a blocking problem for our team, because sometimes the browser is complicated with cookies. Clearing the cookie cache is a way out, but the best indicator is Woopra, because there we can see if other users are accessing from other countries and it is only our problem. Then you have to identify which file is being blocked. In the case shown it is the index.php.
Then you have to go to cpanel and test our access allows us to rename it. I could see that this index had been created, with the lock message and the actual index had been named as index.php.wpau.bak.
Depending on which file it was and why it was blocked, it can be done from Cpanel:
- Change name and replace with previous.
- Change permissions to 644
- Delete it
- To lower
- Modify it by ftp with Dreamweaver.
It may return the message, depending on the action "rename operation failed because it is not permited in ..."
That will give us an idea if the entire public_html folder is locked. That means, that our user is blocked for this.
There is no choice but to call the domain administrator, and ask him to do so; But you have to be honest and tell them what we did and what we think caused the problem. A good sign is that access to wp-admin is enabled, as it means that they are waiting for you to solve an internal problem or that the ip of your computer is enabled to enter the administration panel.
The secure hosting administrator will already have received a ticket from the hostgator administrators, announcing the problem in the form:
Hello,
I apologize but we have been forced to suspend the "/home/geofumadas/public_html/index.php" and "/home/geofumadas/public_html/xmlrpc.php" scripts as they were causing a high load on the server and, due to the nature of the problem, we were forced to take immediate action for the health of the server…Then they suggest the last actions that could cause the problem and possible ways of making the service more efficient.
If we are sure of the problem, and we do not believe we have another type of hole, he should ask to be released. They will do a test and give you back access.
For the next we must be more careful with the use of heavy scripts.
