Learn how to fix Certbot 403 Forbidden Apache error. Our Apache Support team is here to help you with your questions and concerns.

How to Fix Certbot 403 Forbidden Error in Apache

According to our experts, Certbot runs into the “403 Forbidden Apache” while trying to access a certain web resource on our Apache web server.

This error status code is an HTTP response. It lets us know that the server understood the request but refuses to fulfill it because Certbot doesn’t have permission to access the requested resource.

Interestingly, this error usually occurs during the certificate issuance or renewal process.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the causes and fixes for this error:

• A common reason behind the error is incorrect file or directory permissions. Certbot needs access to certain directories and files in our web server’s document root to perform domain validation. So, we have to verify that the directory with the files for our website has the correct permissions. We can use the chmod command to adjust file permissions.
• If the directory we want to access does not have an index.html file, we will see the “403 Forbidden” error. Hence, make sure the directory has an index.html or similar default file.
• Then, check if we have specified the correct document root in your Apache virtual host configuration. We can do this by checking the virtual host configuration files.
• After that, review the Apache configuration for any access control directives that are denying access to the directory or file that Certbot needs.
• Now, our experts recommend verifying that the server’s firewall settings and any security software are not blocking external requests or changing the behavior of Apache.
• Furthermore, if we are using .htaccess files for access control, we have to check them for any rules that may block access to the .well-known/acme-challenge/ directory.
• Then, verify the virtual host configuration for the domain has the DocumentRoot and ServerName or ServerAlias directives.

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Conclusion

In brief, our Support Experts demonstrated how to fix the Certbot 403 Forbidden error in Apache.