Forbidden – You don’t have permission to access this page error and solution

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Q. Why I am getting this error message? I am using Apache web server and my directory is located at /home/myname/public_html.

A. The permissions on your Web page are not correct. Login over ssh session and use chmod command to setup correct permission. Go to directory (for example public_html or /var/www/sitename.com/dir/) and type the following command

$ chmod 755 *.*

OR

$ chmod o+x ./

If you have more subdirectories use -R option:
$ chmod -R 755 *.*

If you have access to Apache configuration file check out for these tips to get rid of Apache 403 forbidden error.

Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin, DevOps engineer, and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. Get the latest tutorials on SysAdmin, Linux/Unix and open source topics via RSS/XML feed or weekly email newsletter.

20 comment

  1. hi, how do you make them open to anyone for perpetuity. for example, everytime i add a folder i have to redo the permissions.
    Thanks!

  5. try chmod -R on the destination of the symlink, its obvious that it wont work because if you chmod the symlink you just make it make accessible for more users but the destination will remain unchanged, however if you chmod the destination it should work ok. Think like making a symlink to your shadow file and trying to chmod your symlink to get permission to the shadow file, that wont work either. Syntax:

    chmod -R <rights> <file>

  6. dear moderator, i see that my post has been changed in the process of posting, i did ‘try chmod -R <rights> <file>’ but the rights and file tags were stripped, would you be so kind to escape char them for me?

    sincerely,
    Jelmer

    1. run ps -ef | grep httpd
      and check which user is running apache if you see user nobody then modify your httpd.conf
      file check for User nobody and Group nobody, remove nobody and enter valid user name and restart apache.

  12. my security question and pasword donot change how to change the password and security question

  14. $ chmod o+x ./
    above command worked for me I use Mac 10.7 with apache, rest of the commands didnt work

  16. im getting errors of

    Forbidden

    You don’t have permission to access / on this server.

    folder i got is aqw-progr but if i put 192.168.1.x in say dont have access i want to public thew portforward but i cant without error

    my website server called uniform server

    specs is

    Server Specification – Plugins
    Apache 2.4.9 VC10 openssl-1.0.1g
    MySQL 5.5.37-community
    MySQL 5.6.17-community
    Mariadb 5.5.37
    Mariadb 10.0.11
    PHP : 5.2.17
    PHP : 5.3.27-5.3.28
    PHP : 5.4.19-5.4.28
    PHP : 5.5.3-5.5.12
    PHP : 5.6.0_beta3
    phpMyAdmin 4.2.2
    phpMyBackupPro 2.4

    Adminer 3.7.1 – 4.1.0
    Strawberry Perl
    ActivePerl via Installer
    APC – Dependent on PHP version
    eAccelerator – Dependent on PHP version
    XCache – Dependent on PHP version
    Zend OpCache – Dependent on PHP version
    OpenSSL 1.0.1g
    msmtp 1.4.32 – Mail client for PHP
    Cron – Scheduler
    DtDNS – IP address updater

    so can you help me try public my website pls all i wanted do is make http://www.example.co.uk and get access to promission all i can is localhost my friend say can not get access

    pm me on parksade55@yahoo.co.uk to help me fix this problem

    i got about 3 linux server im useing one for website but my linux server crashed i had error booting up so i try do on my laptop

    i will lose this website im going turn off my pc soon and try fix my processor

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