I’m the ‘SuperAdmin’ of a website and keep getting a 403 Forbidden Error when trying to install and uninstall modules, updating seems fine.

This is fairly recent, though I can’t say specifically when it happen. We recently moved from a Shared Hosting Pro (SP) account at EngineHosting to a Virtual Server Cluster, less than a month ago. This is when I primarily noticed it. Before that our last Module installation was either Tag 4 or CartThrob 0.9516 which was before Christmas. We just don’t install modules that frequently.

I’ve done the following:

    • tested .htaccess, including totally removing it from the equation;
    • upgraded the site from 1.7.1 to the latest build of 1.7.2;
    • upgraded, disabled, and deleted numerous extensions;
    • tested the site with all extensions disabled, by setting: $conf[‘allow_extensions’] = “y”;  to “n”;
    • adjusted permissions on path.php, config.php from 666 to 777

At this point I’m out of ideas of what could be the problem, and urgently need to install a new module for the client to complete a project that’s due next week.

Hi allgood2,

I’m sorry you are seeing the 403 error.

I’ve seen these errors result when folder names on the server match names of template groups. The server attempts to load the contents of the folder rather than let ExpressionEngine load the template.

Do you have anything like that on this server?

Do you have member registrations enabled for this site? If so, do you have “member” set as the trigger word? EngineHosting made a change recently that causes any site using “member” to produce a 403 error.

You can see, others are affected as well. If you change the profile trigger word to something other than “member” does the 403 go away?

Cheers,

Hi Dan-

Our member page trigger isn’t member, so that’s not it. We do have folder names that match template group names, but that’s always been true for the site and we have .htaccess rules in place for handling. Our entire subsite system is set-up using this method and not MSM, and they all work fine.

The error is specifically when trying to install or uninstall Modules. No where else. Extensions uninstall and install fine, and with the exception of a current, unrelated issue with Google CSE on one of the subsites, everything else is working.

Could folders matching a template_group name effect Module installation?  The set-up was designed maybe 6-8 years ago, and checks to see if a request should be handled by EE or if the file is stored locally. Nothing there is triggering any errors, according to our Apache logs. The 403 errors are only coming up in the Control Panel, and then only when trying to install or uninstall Modules, no other add-ons are effected.

Anymore ideas for this. EngineHosting says it’s EE related, since the 403 errors show up in the access logs, but not the actual error logs. I really need this issue resolved. We need to uninstall and install a module for a project going live Monday, and basically can’t do either from the modules tab.

Hi allgood2,

I’m going to get your issue escalated. Be looking for an email from us.

Cheers

Hi allgood2,

I see that Kevin was able to trace this down to an issue with .htaccess

Is there anything else I can assist you with?

Cheers,