On Windows with an IIS site what is giving a http error 403

Question

I am trying to figure out what is giving me a 403 error. Details

• I cannot find the call in the IIS logs.
• Windows Defender Firewall is turned off
• If I run Message Analyzer on the system I can see the call coming in and can see that it is sending out 403.
• If I run Process Monitor I can see that the process "System" does a "TCP Receive" that is probably my call (the number of bytes in it seem to be correct).
• It is an App in IIS off of the Default Website

How can tell Where it is being given a 403? Is there another place to log or another thing I can look at to figure out what is blocking it?

Answer 1

To figure out the root cause of 403 error, you need to find the sub-status code first. If the request was not logged in IIS log, you could try to force IIS to return detailed error message.

<system.webServer>

    <httpErrors errorMode="Detailed" />

</system.webServer>

Besides, did you bind host name for your website? If the domain is pointing to the wrong place. Then your IIS would probably not log the request. Since 403 error is returned from remote server, trace the IIS pipeline with Failed request tracing would be more helpful.

In addition, Please ensure application pool identity (IIS Apppool\\) and IUSR have read permission to access the root folder of your web application.

Please also remember to check whether unrequired URL rewrite or IP address deny rule was created in Site/Server node.

Finally, remember to clean cache before trying to access the website again.