If you encounter a 403 error without Cloudflare branding, it may be related to permission rules on the web server hosting your website or application, rather than Cloudflare itself.
Top Reasons for 403 Errors
- Permission rules you have set or errors in your
.htaccessrules. - Mod_security rules.
- IP Deny rules.
Since Cloudflare cannot access your server directly, please contact our technical support team for assistance in resolving 403 errors and fixing rules.
It's important to ensure that Cloudflare CIDR is not being blocked before delving further into troubleshooting.
403 Errors with Cloudflare Branding
If you see a 403 response that contains Cloudflare branding in the response body, it indicates that the HTTP response code is returned alongside many of Cloudflare's security features, including:
- Web Application Firewall challenge and block pages.
- Basic Protection level challenges.
- Most 1xxx Cloudflare error codes.
Additionally, if you're trying to access second-level subdomains (e.g., *.*.example.com) through Cloudflare using the Cloudflare-issued certificate, you will encounter an HTTP 403 error. This occurs because these hostnames are not present on the certificate.
Contacting Support
If you have questions or need further assistance, please contact Cloudflare Support. Be sure to include a screenshot of the message you see or copy all the text on the page into a support ticket.
Warning: Please ensure to check the latest documentation related to this topic, even though we have it available in our Knowledge Base. This will help you stay updated with any recent changes or improvements.
