Author Topic: 403 error only for the settings area  (Read 458 times)

Offline barricademan

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403 error only for the settings area
« on: June 23, 2025, 01:24:22 PM »
I'm getting a 403 error (forbidden) only when editing the settings inside the admin area.
I checked the .htaccess, everything seems to ok.
Turned off Mod_Security - did not fix it, turned it back on
changed php version to 8.2 instead of 8.4, did not fix the problem

within the error message, it also states this: Please be advised that LiteSpeed Technologies Inc. is not a web hosting company and, as such, has no control over content found on this site.

This is a new install

I can't be the only person experiencing this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Offline Basara

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Re: 403 error only for the settings area
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2025, 02:29:24 AM »
Hello.
Based on your description, it does sound like a Web Application Firewall (WAF) configuration issue. Most often, it is related to ModSecurity or similar server-side security rules.
Temporarily disable ModSecurity again, and this time wait at least 1 hour before testing the admin settings area.
If the issue still persists after that, it’s best to reach out to your hosting provider’s support team.

Offline barricademan

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Re: 403 error only for the settings area
« Reply #2 on: June 24, 2025, 09:08:00 AM »
I did find and fix the problem. It was in fact a false positive between Abantecart and Mod_Security.

There were three wrong permissions,
  • Index.php inside the root directory
  • Vendor Folder
  • System/config.php

All three had permissions of 755 which in fact is the wrong setting. All three are supposed to be set to 555.

The permissions could not be reset with ftp, they had to be changed using the Terminal.

Although I'm happy that I fixed it, maybe this post will help someone in the future, I've decided to delete Abantecart due to the lack of resources available for free. I feel that Abantecart would have been so more popular if the resources were more widely available as they are for other shopping cart platforms.

 

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